Clinical implications of heat shock protein 70 in oral carcinogenesis and prediction of progression and recurrence in oral squamous cell carcinoma patients - a retrospective clinicopathological study

Sep 24, 2026

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Background Oral cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide, and identifying novel prognostic biomarkers remains challenging. Heat shock proteins have conflicting roles in oral cancer, prompting investigation of HSP70 expression across normal oral mucosa, dysplastic epithelium, and oral squamous cell carcinoma. HSP70 immuno-expression was assessed against prognostic parameters to evaluate its ability to predict cancer progression, recurrence, and disease-free survival.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

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Pages18

Reading Time45 min

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Abstract

Background

Methods

Results

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Introduction

Elhendawy European Journal European Journal of Medical Research (2023) 28:464 [https://doi.org/10.1186/s40001-023-01433-8](https://doi.org/10.1186/s40001-023-01433-8 of Medical Research)[ of Medical Research](https://doi.org/10.1186/s40001-023-01433-8 of Medical Research) RESEARCH Open Access Clinical implications of heat shock protein 70 in oral carcinogenesis and prediction of progression and recurrence in oral squamous cell carcinoma patients: a retrospective clinicopathological study Heba A. Elhendawy 1* Abstract Background Oral cancer is a common cause of death worldwide. The search for novel biomarkers for oral cancer is an ongoing struggle. Prognostic biomarkers are of great importance in diagnosis, and prediction of the cancer outcome. There are several disagreements in oral cancer studies over the role of heat shock proteins as prognostic markers. The current study investigated HSP70 expression in diverse tissues ranging from normal oral mucosa to dysplastic oral epithelium and oral squamous cell carcinoma to determine its role in oral carcinogenesis. Moreover, HSP70 was evaluated concerning different prognostic parameters to determine its capability in predicting cancer progression. Recurrence of tumor was recorded, and patients` disease-free survival was calculated and analyzed considering HSP70 expression to determine the potential utility of HSP70 immuno-expression in predicting recurrence. Methods A retrospective study was accomplished on 50 cases of OSCC. Biopsies from the cancerous tissue, the free surgical margin, and the normal oral mucosa were used. The grading of dysplastic epithelium and OSCCs followed the criteria of WHO classification (2017) . The clinicopathological and follow-up records for each patient were retrieved. Pearson’s Chi-square test, one-way ANOVA, and post hoc tests were used to analyze the variance of HSP70 immunoexpression concerning different parameters. The Kaplan–Meier method was used to compute and visualize diseasefree survival, and the log-rank test was used to analyze the data. With Cox regression, univariate and multivariate survival analyses were run. A P-value of 0.05 or less was regarded as statistically significant. Results A significant increased expression of HSP70 was observed as the tissue progressed from normal to dysplastic epithelium, and carcinoma (P = 0 . 000) . HSP70 revealed a significant increased expression by progression from mild to severe dysplasia (P = 0 . 023), and also from well to moderately and poorly differentiated carcinoma (P = 0 . 000) . High HSP70 immuno-expression was significantly associated with progression of OSCC; large-sized tumors (P = 0 . 002), advanced TNM clinical stages (P = 0 . 001), positive nodal involvement (P = 0 . 001), presence of recurrence (P = . 008), and reduced DFS (P = 0 . 014) . Conclusion HSP70 has a crucial contribution to oral carcinogenesis, and its immune-expression could potentially be used as predictor of progression and recurrence of OSCC patients. *Correspondence: Heba A. Elhendawy [helhendawy15@mans.edu.eg](helhendawy15@mans.edu.eg) Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s) 2023. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To vie

FAQs

What was the purpose of evaluating HSP70 in this study?

The study assessed HSP70 expression in normal, dysplastic, and carcinoma tissues to determine its role in oral carcinogenesis and its value in predicting progression and recurrence in OSCC patients.

How were the patients and tissue samples selected?

A retrospective study included 50 OSCC cases. Biopsies were obtained from cancerous tissue, the free surgical margin, and normal oral mucosa, and dysplasia/OSCC grading followed WHO classification criteria (2017).

What did the study find regarding HSP70 expression and prognosis?

HSP70 expression increased significantly as tissue progressed from normal to dysplastic epithelium and carcinoma, and high HSP70 levels were associated with progression, recurrence, and reduced disease-free survival.

Sep 24, 2026

Uploaded by Aran