Immunohistochemical evaluation of the expression of E-cadherin adhesion molecules in squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity.

Immunohistochemical expression of E-cadherin in squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity was investigated with respect to the relationship between preserved- or reducedtype E-cadherin and clinicopathological findings.Reduced-type E-cadherin expression was significantly more prominent at areas with deep invasion than at areas with superficial to middle invasion in tissue specimens (p=0.002). Ecadherin expression at areas of deep invasion was correlated with the clinical tumor stage (p=0.042). Furthermore, loss of E-cadherin expression was significantly correlated with lymph node metastasis, as compared with patients without lymph node metastasis (p=0.027).These findings suggest that investigation of E-cadherin expression might be useful in predicting the probability of cervical lymph node metastasis in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma.