Affiliations: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery,
University of Erlangen, Glückstrasse 11, 91054 Erlangen, Germany | Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery,
University of Gazi, School of Dentistry Ankara, Turkey, Emek 8.cadde, 82.sokak,
06510, Ankara, Turkey | Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Kyushu
University, 3-1-1 Maidashi, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 812-8582, Japan | Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery,
University of Athens, Athens, Greece
Note: [] Corresponding author: Dr. Jutta Ries, PhD, Department of Oral
and Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Erlangen, Glückstrasse 11, 91054
Erlangen, Germany. Tel.: +49 9131 85 6810; Fax: +49 9131 85 4219; E-mail:
Jutta.Ries@uk-erlangen.de
Abstract: Objective: Melanoma associated antigens-A (MAGE-A) expression is
highly specific to cancer cells. Thus, they can be the most suitable targets
for the diagnosis of malignancy. The aim of this study was to evaluate the
sensitivity of multiple MAGE-A expression analysis for the diagnosis of oral
squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Methods: Total of 70 OSSC and 20 normal
oral mucosal (NOM) samples of otherwise healthy volunteers were examined for
the expression of 10 different single antigens out of 12 different MAGE-A
subtypes by highly sensitive reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction
(RT-PCR) methods. The results were correlated to clinicopathological parameters
of tumor samples. Results: Expression of MAGE-A was restricted to OSCC.
The expression frequency of single antigen was between 10% and 55%.
However, expression rate was increased up to 93% by the elevated number of
genes examined. A significant correlation was found between the expression of
MAGE-A and malignancy (p=0.0001). In addition, multiple MAGE-A detection
has also correlated to the incidence of lymph node metastasis, grading and
advanced clinical stages. Conclusions: Analysis of multiple MAGE-A
expression is more sensitive than the analysis of a single MAGE-A for the
diagnostic evaluation of OSCC. Multiple MAGE-A expression analysis may be a
very sensitive method to be used for the diagnosis even in the early stage of
OSCC.
