Squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity represents the sixth most common cancer worldwide and it is often preceded by pre-neoplastic lesions. Sometimes it is still difficult for pathologists to make objective differential diagnoses only on histological characteristics. Tumorigenesis is accompanied by altered expression of cell adhesion molecules, like carcinoembryonic antigen cell adhesion molecule (CEACAM)1. We wanted to investigative CEACAM1 in oral dysplastic lesions, carcinoma in situ (CIS) and oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). We examined immunohistochemical CEACAM1 expression in 50 OSCC, 30 oral CIS and 40 pre-neoplastic lesions and assessed its correlation with clinical and pathological parameters. CEACAM1 was not expressed in normal mucosa, significantly expressed in CIS while it was negative in all the dysplastic lesions. In OSCC, high CEACAM1 expression was associated with tumor grade and inversely correlated with both overall and disease-specific 5-year survival. We showed that CEACAM1 expression is very dynamic: absent in dysplastic lesions, up-regulated in CIS and OSCC. We suggest that CEACAM1 could be a prognostic marker of OSCC and oral CIS. Our most important finding was that it could help pathologists diagnosing oral carcinoma in situ.
Keywords: CEACAM1; Immunohistochemistry; Oral pre-neoplastic lesion; Oral squamous cell carcinoma; Prognostic marker.