Immunoexpression of Podoplanin in Leukoplakia and Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma and its Correlation with Survival: A Research Protocol

Abstract

Introduction: Podoplanin (PDPN) is a well-conserved mucintype transmembrane glycoprotein. According to various studies, podoplanin expression is seen in various human cancers and it also encourages the progression of the tumour. A high PDPN expression, specifically in oral cancers, shows a significant relation to the metastasis of lymph nodes and poor patient survival, suggesting its substantial role in identifying the malignant transformation of a lesion by its expression in initial oral tumourigenesis. Only few studies have mentioned the use of podoplanin marker in detection of malignant transformation of Oral Potentially Malignant Disorders (OPMDs). Most malignant transformations are seen in cases of oral leukoplakia. This study will help in early diagnosis of malignant transformation of leukoplakia by showing an increased expression of podoplanin thereby resulting in better treatment and prognosis of the disease. Aim: To evaluate immunoexpression of podoplanin in leukoplakia and oral squamous cell carcinoma and also to correlate it with the clinicopathological characteristics of leukoplakia and Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC) and the survival of OSCC patients. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study will be conducted in the Oral Pathology Department at Sharad Pawar Dental College, Wardha, Maharashtra, India. Surgically operated OSCC cases from year 2005-2019 in this Institute will be retrieved from the archival of the department. Ninety samples in total will be taken for the study which will be further divided into three groups, consisting of 30 samples in each group as follows: leukoplakia, OSCC and normal oral mucosa (control). Immunohistochemical staining will be carried out, and podoplanin (PDPN) immunoexpression with different clinical characteristics of leukoplakia and oral squamous cell carcinoma will be assessed. Broder's grading system will be used for histopathological grading of all cases of OSCC. The Chi-square test, Kaplan-Meier method, and the log-rank test will be used to statistically analyse the data.