A comparative study of the clinicopathological significance of E-cadherin and catenins (alpha, beta, gamma) expression in the surgical management of oral tongue carcinoma.

E-cadherin and catenins are important epithelial adhesion molecules in normal epithelium. Loss of E-cadherin-catenin adhesion is an important step in the progression of many epithelial cancers. E-cadherin and catenins expression in carcinoma of the tongue were evaluated in relation to their clinicopathological features and prognostic values. Immunohistochemical staining was carried out with E-cadherin and (alpha, beta, gamma)-catenin monoclonal antibodies for 85 surgical specimens of oral tongue carcinoma, nine matched metastatic lymph nodes, and seven locally recurrent tumours. There was under-expression in 85% of E-cadherin, 94% of alpha-catenin, 89% of beta-catenin, and 83% of gamma-catenin in the primary tumours. There was no correlation of E-cadherin/catenin expression with sex, age, cancer stage, and differentiation. Nodal metastasis was found in 68% of patients with weak expression of gamma-catenin compared with 9% with strong expression in primary tumours (chi-square, P = 0.02). E-cadherin was a significant prognostic factor for survival and recurrence; patients with weak E-cadherin expression had 53% 5-year survival compared with 85% with strong expression (Wilcoxon, P = 0.0159). Both E-cadherin and catenins were highly under-expressed in oral tongue carcinoma, metastatic lymph node, and recurrent tumour. gamma-catenin had predictive value for nodal metastasis. E-cadherin was, however, a more important prognostic factor for recurrence and survival.