immunohistochemical expression of sox2 in oral normal epithelial, dysplasia and squamous cell carcinoma

Objective: oral squamous cell carcinoma (scc) is an aggressive neoplasm with serious morbidity and mortality, which typically spreads through local invasive growth. a key approach to this tumor would be to detect potentially malignant lesions at their early stages. the transcription factor, sex determining region y-box 2 (sox2) is an essential regulator of pluripotent stem cells and promotes developmentand maintenance of squamous epithelia. materials and methods: we retrospectively reviewed the charts of 24 samples of scc, oral epithelial dysplasia and control group, then immunohistochemical staining was performed to detect sox2 expression. results: comparisons between scc and oral epithelial dysplasia group did not reveal any significant difference (p=0.496); also values of control and oral epithelial dysplasia group were statically different (p<0.001). similarly, a significant difference was observed between the values of scc and controls’ (p<0.001). conclusion: in conclusion, sox2 overexpression is seen in oral dysplasia and scc and their detection in early stages could be crucial for early tumor identification.