Plasma progastrin levels in patients with oral squamous cellcarcinoma – a cross-sectional study

INTRODUCTION: Progastrin, is over-expressed in human colorectal tumor cells and also directly targets the ß-catenin/Tcf4 oncogenic pathway, The association between Wnt/ß-catenin pathway and cancer is not merely restricted to colorectal cancer as disruption of this pathway results in epithelial mesenchymal transition in oral carcinogenesis. As therole of progastrin in subjects with Oral cancer(OC) is less explored, this study was contemplated to assess the role of plasma progastrin levels in subjects with various stages of oral squamous cell carcinoma. METHODS: The present study was a cross-sectional study done among 60 subjects who were divided into two study groups: Group OC (n=30) who have histologically confirmed oral squamous cell carcinomaand Group C (n=30) who were healthy controls. 10ml of blood samples were drawn from the study subjects and plasma was analysed for progastrin peptide. RESULTS: The present study demonstrated that the mean plasma progastrin levels (hPG80) were significantly elevated in Group OC (20.51 pM/L) when compared to the control (9.9 pM/L). No significant difference in Plasma level of progastrin between well, moderate and poorly differentiated OC and withincreasing staging of OC. CONCLUSION: The present study showed increased levels of plasma progastrin in subject with oral squamous cell carcinoma when compared to the control, highlighting the potential of using plasma progastrin levels as a biomarker for early detection of oral malignancies.