Expression of Survivin in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Survivin is a new and structurally unique member of the inhibitor of apoptosis family, expressed in all of the most common human cancers. We performed immunohistochemical staining of survivin and analyzed the relation with the clinicopathologic characteristics in human oral cancers. Oral biopsy specimens of 19 cases (12 men and 7 women) of oral cancer were used. The overall survivin positivity was 58%. The percentage of survivin-positive specimens in the T1+T2 group was significantly higher than that in the T3+T4 group (P=0.024) and the percentage of survivin-positive specimens in the N0 group was also significantly higher than that in the N+group (P=0.027). A slightly higher percentage of survivin-positive specimens was observed in the gingival cancer group compared with the tongue cancer group (P=0.059) and the percentage of survivin-positive specimens in the CR+PR group was also slightly higher than that in the NC group (P=0.06). Survivin was preferentially expressed in non-advanced, non-metastatic, and chemotherapy-sensitive oral squamous cell carcinoma.