Arushi Agrawal, Pooja Agarwal, Nupur Kaushik, Yatendra Mohan, Shikha Prakash, Akhil Pratap Singh, Ankur Agarwal 1. Junior Resident, Department of Pathology, S.N. Medical College, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India.
2. Professor and Head, Department of Pathology, S.N. Medical College, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India.
3. Senior Resident, Department of Pathology, S.N. Medical College, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India.
4. Assistant Professor, Department of Transfusion Medicine, S.N. Medical College, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India.
5. Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology, S.N. Medical College, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India.
6. Assistant Professor, Department of Ear, Nose and Throat, S.N. Medical College, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India.
7. Senior Resident, Department of Surgery, GIMS, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India.
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: Oral cancer presents challenging and unresolved problems for the human population, accounting for as much as 30-40% of all carcinomas in India. The current research focuses on the use of the tumour marker β2-microglobulin as a surrogate marker in patients with Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC) for early detection of cancer.
Aim: To evaluate the level of serum β2-microglobulin in histologically diagnosed OSCC patients and compare it with age- and sex-matched healthy controls.
Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in the Department of Pathology at SN Medical College, Agra, over a period of one year and six months. The study included 50 histologically diagnosed OSCC cases and 40 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. Blood samples were taken from the healthy controls and OSCC patients, and the level of serum β2-microglobulin was measured using Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). Statistical analysis was conducted using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 11. Z test and ANOVA test were used to compare various parameters. A p-value of <0.05 was considered significant.
Results: In the 50 cases of OSCC, the mean±SD of serum β2-microglobulin was 2.99±0.85 μg/mL, while in the healthy controls, it was 1.30±0.10 μg/mL, with a p-value <0.001, which was statistically significant. The mean±SD of serum β2-microglobulin in cases of Well Differentiated Squamous Cell Carcinoma (WDSCC) was 2.40±1.59 μg/mL, whereas it was 3.09±1.52 μg/mL in Moderately Differentiated Squamous Cell Carcinoma (MDSCC) and 3.46±0.03 μg/mL in Poorly Differentiated Squamous Cell Carcinoma (PDSCC), with a p-value of <0.05, which was statistically significant. Increased levels of serum β2-microglobulin were observed among all cases of OSCC. Loss of differentiation in Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC) was associated with an increase in levels of serum β2-microglobulin.
Conclusion: Due to its minimally invasive nature and quick availability of results, serum β2-microglobulin can be used for diagnosis of OSCC. Therefore, it is recommended to monitor levels of serum β2-microglobulin in patients with OSCC.
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