Expression of Protein Product GENENM23 in Tongue Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Tongue squamous cell carcinoma, a relatively frequent malignancy in oral cavity, has a great tendency to metastasize to regional lymph nodes that worsen the prognosis of the disease. The anti metastasis gene NM23, encodes a 17 KD cytoplasmic and nuclear protein, has shown controversial behaviour as metastatic suppressor in human cancer. A study using immunohistochemical staining method with LSAB technique was conducted on tongue squamous cell carcinoma paraffin block specimens to show the relationship between significance of the expression OF NM23 protein product gene as a marker for cancer metastasize, with cancer grading and lymph nodes metastasis. The result showed that there was in inverse relationship between expression of NM23 protein and grading as well as lymph nodes metastases, supporting the role of NM23 as metastasis suppressor factor that may be useful for predicting tongue squamous cell carcinoma metastasis.