Expression of PIWIL2 in oral cancer and leukoplakia: Prognostic implications and insights from tumors.

In this study, we analyzed the expression of the stem cell protein PIWIL2 in oral squamous-cell carcinoma (OSCC) and in premalignant oral leukoplakia (OL) with predominant expression in malignant and premalignant tissues. In the evaluated patients, we found that PIWIL2 was associated significantly with OSCC prognosis and OL. Furthermore, PIWIL2 was found to be expressed in tumor epithelial cells and macrophages in the tumor microenvironment, which are not derived from enlarged lymph nodes. Cytological experiments confirmed that the human squamous cell carcinoma cell line SCC-25, can promote the PIWIL2 and Nanog level in THP-1 cells, which are extensively used to study the modulation of monocytes and macrophages. Our findings showed that PIWIL2 can predict effectively OSCC prognosis and OL with a high risk of OSCC development and substantiate the deduction that cancer stem(-like) cells in oral cancer have the ability to reconstitute the heterogeneity of the bulk tumor and contribute to poor outcome and immunosuppression. PMID: 31322538 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Cancer Biomarkers - Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: Cancer Biomark Source Type: research