EVIDENCE FOR FIELD CHANGE IN ORAL-CANCER BASED ON CYTOKERATIN EXPRESSION

It was hypothesised that.one may be able to visualise field changes, w hich are proposed to exist around tumours, as alterations in keratin i ntermediate filament protein expression. Standard immunohistochemical analysis using a panel of monoclonal anti-keratin antibodies was appli ed to fresh tissue sections to look for subtle changes in epithelial d ifferentiation not visible in H&E sections. Such changes were observed in clinically normal epithelium from oral cancer patients, involving primarily substantial expression of keratins K8/K7 (using CAM 5.2) in the basal cells of 12 out of 34 biopsies, and also a trend towards a r eduction in the complexity of keratin differentiation. Monitoring such changes may prove to be a valuable adjunct to conventional H&E staini ng if found to have prognostic and diagnostic significance.