Indian Journal of Pathology and Oncology 2021;8(4):473–477 Content available at: https://www.ipinnovative.com/open-access-journals Indian Journal of Pathology and Oncology Journal homepage: www.ijpo.co.in Original Research Article Ki-67 expression in human oral squamous cell carcinoma Chandrakanta 1 , Pooja Nagayach 1 , Ritu Sonkar 1 , Rajni Bharti 1 , Harendra Kumar 1, * 1 Dept. of Pathology, Sarojini Naidu Medical College, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received 15-07-2021 Accepted 02-09-2021 Available online 23-11-2021 Keywords: Oral cancer Ki-67 SCC ABSTRACT Introduction: Oral cancers are one of the 10 leading cancers in the world. However, in India, it is one of the most common cancers and constitutes a major public health problem. Oral squamous cell carcinoma is a well-known malignancy that accounts for more than 90% of all oral cancers. Materials and Methods: The study is carried out on 40 biopsy samples received on oral mucosa, in Department of Pathology of our institute. Result: Maximum numbers of patients were from 3th to 6th decade in our study. 38 cases of oral squamous cell carcinoma were observed, out of which 31 (81.57%) were male, and 07 (18.42%) cases were female. The most common site was tongue (50%), followed by buccal mucosa (18.42%), 06 patients (15.78%) had lesion at palate. Thirty-five (92.10%) cases had a significant history of tobacco use/smoking, whereas 03 (7.89%) did not have any history of tobacco use. We observed Ki-67 LI for normal oral mucosa was 14 ± 5.6%. In well-differentiated carcinoma, the KI-67 LI was 28.52 ± 21.25%, which increased to 42.85 ± 18.2% in moderately differentiated carcinoma and 68.57 ± 17.6% in poorly differentiated carcinoma. Conclusion: Ki-67 acts as an excellent marker of cellular proliferation. There is a statistical difference in KI-67 overexpression between various grades of oral squamous cell carcinoma and normal oral mucosa (p value <0.05). This is an Open Access (OA) journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms. For reprints contact: reprint@ipinnovative.com 1. Introduction Oral cancers are one of the ten leading cancers in the world. However, in India, it is one of the most common cancers and constitutes a major public health problem. 1 Oral squamous cell carcinoma is a well-known malignancy that accounts for more than 90% of all oral cancers. 2 Some of the important risk factors for oral squamous cell carcinoma are use of tobacco or betel quid and regular drinking of alcoholic beverages. The mutagenic effects of tobacco, alcohol, betel quid or areca-nut are dependent upon dose, frequency and duration of use and are accelerated and exaggerated by the concurrent use of two or more of these agents. 3 However, high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) genotypes * Corresponding author. E-mail address: dr_haren@yahoo.co.in (H. Kumar). also appear to play an etiologic role in many cancers of the oropharynx and possibly a small subgroup of cancers of the oral cavity. 4 The mean age of occurrence of cancer in different parts of oral cavity is usually between 51-55 years in most countries. The tongue is the leading site, among oral cancers, in India. Other important sites in Asian countries include the buccal mucosa and gingiva. The 5 year survival rate has been low for oral cancers, despite improvements in diagnosis and treatment. 5 Generally oral squamous cell carcinomas metastasize early and are associated with a poor survival rate. Their prevention largely depends on timeous identification of precancerous oral mucosal lesions, which may present clinically as a homogeneous or nodular white plaque (leukoplakia), a mixed white and red lesion (erythroleukoplakia) or a homogeneous or nodular red lesion (erythroplakia). Red premalignant lesions, generally, https://doi.org/10.18231/j.ijpo.2021.098 2394-6784/© 2021 Innovative Publication, All rights reserved. 473