Scientific Officer

RESEARCH

The prime goal of our research is to identify molecular biomarkers for early detection and prognostic evaluation of oral cancer. Biomarkers can be used for patient assessment in multiple clinical settings. In this direction, we have evaluated the diagnostic and prognostic potential of some solid tumour markers, serum markers and ultrastructural morphological markers in oral pre-cancer as well as cancer. The different research projects undertaken for this, encompass the following - estimation of disease risk in oral disorders including leukoplakia and submucous fibrosis, early identification of aggressive features in primary tumours (T1/T2N0), detection of occult metastatic disease in pathologically node negative tumours (pN0), prediction of disease spread, local recurrence, and survival of oral patients, indication of post- surgery radio/chemo resistance using stem cell associated molecules, selection of patients for neoadjuvant chemo-therapy (NACT) in locally advanced oral tumours. In addition to this, we have generated a statistical model-Nomogram for the prediction of neck node metastasis in pN0 patients. We have also successfully constructed in-vitro 3D co-culture models from human tongue tissues which could be useful in understanding multistep oral tumorigenesis process and to evaluate the efficacy of anticancer drugs.

We have studied keratin expression profile in human oral pre-cancer as well as cancer and some consistent patterns of keratin expression have emerged from these studies. Many of these alterations show a potential to be used as predictive markers for human oral cancer.
Our results showed aberrant expression of keratins 1, 8, 18 and aberrant non-expression of keratin 5 in oral leukoplakic and submucous fibrosis and it correlated with their histopathological grade. Similarly, in oral tumours it correlated with local recurrence, regional lymph node metastasis and poorer survival in patients with oral cancer. Findings suggest, loss and gain of keratins could serve as surrogate markers for the diagnosis of oral potentially malignant disorders and may also have prognostic value in patients with oral cancer.
Although vimentin is mesenchymal specific protein and it aberrantly expresses in carcinomas, we have first time showed its aberrant expression in oral premalignant disorder and its correlation with their histopathological grades, tumour invasion and metastasis.
With the aim of developing non-invasive tumour markers we have evaluated the prognostic value of soluble keratin and CD44 proteins. The levels of soluble CD44 and keratins K8, 18 and 19 (tissue polypeptide antigen-TPA) significantly correlated with the development of recurrence and survival indicating CD44 and TPA can be a useful and non-invasive assays for the prediction of disease recurrence and patient’s survival Further, we have evaluated prognostic value of stem cell associated molecules such as Oct4, CD44 and c-Myc independently as well as in different combinations in patients with oral SCC who had received post-surgery radio- and/or chemotherapy.