Significance and expression of p-Akt in oral squamous cell carcinoma

Background: Oral cancer is considered as the sixth-most common malignant neoplasm in the world and the most common type is squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Akt is a serine/threonine-protein kinase, that acts in the regulation of different signaling downstream pathways, including; proliferation, growth, cell metabolism, angiogenesis and survival. The objective of the present study was to show the expression of p-Akt and its prognostic effect in oral SCC (OSCC). Materials and Methods: A total of 72 cases of OSCC were included in this study; the expression of the Akt gene was done on 4 μm tumor sections using immunohistochemical staining of Akt antibody. Results: Histopathological examination showed that: (43) were GIII, (13) cases were GII, and (16) cases were GI. The positivity of immunohistochemical staining were appear as brown stain. Results showed increase expression of p-Akt in most cases of oral SCC and mean expression about (54.86 ± 31.58), and the expression of p-Akt was increased with the progression of the histological grade of the tumor. Conclusion: High expression of p-Akt and its relation with the progression of tumor grade and invasion of tumor may indicate the relationship between p-Akt expression and aggressiveness and progression of the tumor.