SUMMARY
Background: Oral squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is one of the most frequent cancers in the world. The overall postoperative survival has not improved much despite advanced surgical techniques and anticancer drugs. A better understanding of molecular mechanisms and identification of potential oncogenes in oral carcinomas may provide new therapeutic decisions such as target therapy in the treatment of these patients. Aims and objectives: The present study aimed at analyzing the clinicopathological profile of patients with oral SCC and also, to determine the levels of expression of EGFR and Her-2 neu in these lesions and carry out their correlation with the clinicopathological parameters. Material and Methods: The expression of EGFR and Her-2 neu was studied in paraffin embedded tissue sections of oral SCC after taking a detailed history and examination. Results and Conclusion: EGFR was positively expressed in 84.4% (38/45) of squamous cell carcinomas and 79% (19/24) of dysplasias. While Her-2 neu was positively expressed in 62.2% (28/45) of carcinomas and 66.7% (16/24) of dysplasias. The correlation between tumor differentiation and immunomarker expression came out to be significant for EGFR but not Her-2 neu. Thus, a high level of EGFR is strongly associated with tumor aggressiveness. Molecular targeting of EGFR can therefore, is used for adjuvant treatment in malignancy.