Review: The backbone of clonal evolution model claims that every individual malignant cell has the potential to initiate a new neoplasm. Yet, the cancer stem cell theory confirms that only a few number of stem-like cancer cells can initiate a new neoplasm with all clones of the original neoplasm. CD133 is the most commonly used marker to identify the CSCs from different malignancies. Among the important mediators of the inflammatory pathways is COX-2, which has been found to be elevated in several human cancers. The strong association of different types of cancer with some chronic inflammatory diseases confirms the influential role of inflammation in carcinogenesis.
Aim of study: The present study aimed to find the possible correlation between the stemness (CD133+) and the inflammatory modulator (COX-2) in different grades of oral epithelial dysplasias which might help in predicting the oral cancer development.
Material and Methods: Immunohistochemical expression of CD133 and COX-2 was evaluated in 5 histologically normal samples of normal oral mucosa and 30 samples of oral dysplasia.
Results: For both CD133 and COX-2, there were a statistically significant difference between the different grades of oral dysplasias (P-value <0.001, Effect size = 0.956 for CD133 and 0.942 for COX-2).
Conclusion: The gradual over expression of CD133 and COX-2 from normal to different grades of oral dysplastic lesions suggests the potential role of these both proteins in oral carcinogenesis, and might help in the diagnosis and the prediction of the oral cancer development.