The Roles Of Protooncogene C-jun In Oral Carcinogenesis And Its Prognostic Value

In Taiwan, the prevalence of oral cancer has been ranked the seventh to ten leading cancers resulting in mortality. Individually among males, oral cancer is the fifth leading cancer both in incidence and mortality. According to a report of cancer registration conducted by Department of health in 2001, the annual mortality of oral SCC (squamous cell carcinoma) in Taiwan has greatly increased up to 14.20%, which was the highest in all carcinomas and twice as great as the average mortality of the year.Numerous epidemiological studies have found and association between the incidence of oral cancers and betel nut chewing. Recent studies in molecular biology have found that the incidence of various cancers resulted from genetic changes. These gene damages were thought to be prevalent in oncogene and tumor suppressor gene. These damaged genes were not repaired and caused the genesis of tumors. Betel nuts and the betel nut extract (ANE) were believed to be the risk factors, which might exacerbate the carcinogenic properties. Other studies have found a significant difference between the ingredients in betel nuts and the incidence of oral cancer in Taiwan, which might induce the over-expression and mutation of oncogene.The study was designed to use the betel nut extract (ANE) and arecoline to examine the expression of proto-oncogene c-jun mRNA in oral submucous fibroblast (OMF) to determine whether or not the ingredients in extract nuts induce the over-expression of c-jun. The results suggested that the betel nut extract (ANE) and arecoline might induce the over-expression of proto-oncogene c-jun mRNA, which was three times higher compared with that in a normal condition. Since the constant expression of c-jun mRNA may cause carcinogenesis of fibroblasts, our results clearly show that the betel nut extract (ANE) and arecoline induce higher level of expression of proto-oncogene c-jun RNA in oral submucous fibroblast(OMF) may be one the mechanism in the carcinogenesis of oral SCC in Taiwan.Because of the high invasion and low survival rate in oral cancer, the goal to...