Impact of pre-operative serum C-reactive protein and cell-free chromatin levels on tumor aggressiveness and survival outcome in oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma

• Published in: Oral oncology 2021-03, Vol.114, p.105078-105078, Article 105078
• Main Authors: Singhavi, Hitesh R., Khare, Naveen, Singh, Arjun, Khandelwal, Aakanksha, Kannan, Sadhana, Patil, Akshay, Mittra, Indraneel, Chaturvedi, Pankaj
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1368-8375; 1879-0593
• DOI: 10.1016/j.oraloncology.2020.105078

•Inflammatory biomarkers such as C-reactive protein (CRP) can predict tumor aggressiveness in oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma.•Higher CRP levels does not influence overall survival in oral cavity cancers.•Pre-operative cell-free chromatin may play an important role in predicting overall survival in oral cavity cancers. We recruited 69 consecutive patients with oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) between January 2017 and January 2019 for this study. All patients underwent up-front surgery followed by adjuvant radio- and/or chemotherapy as indicated. Pre-operative serum levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) and cell-free chromatin (cfCh) were estimated by ELISA and post-operative histopathological features were recorded. CRP levels were significantly associated with poor histopathological features, advanced stage, bone erosion, extracapsular spread and pathological nodal status. CRP levels were not associated with survival. CfCh levels were significantly associated with bone erosion and neck nodes and patients with higher cfCh levels had significantly poor overall survival.