Evaluating palmitoyl-protein thioesterase 1 in oral squamous cell carcinoma: A novel indicator of tumor behavior and therapeutic response.

BACKGROUND: Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) poses a major health burden, with frequent late-stage diagnoses and limited prognostic tools. Palmitoyl-protein thioesterase (PPT)1, a lysosomal enzyme, has been implicated in tumor biology. This study investigates PPT1 expression in OSCC and its association with clinicopathological features. AIM: To evaluate the immunohistochemical expression of PPT1 in OSCC and assess its correlation with patient age, gender, tumor grade, and TNM staging using H-score quantification. METHODS: Immunohistochemistry for PPT1 was performed on 43 histopathologically confirmed OSCC samples. PPT1 expression was quantified using the H-score method (range: 0-300). Correlation with clinical parameters was assessed using Spearman's rank correlation and Kruskal-Wallis test. RESULTS: PPT1 expression showed a significant positive correlation with tumor grade (ρ = 0.48, P = 0.0015), while a weak, nonsignificant negative correlation was noted with patient age (ρ = -0.27, P = 0.083). No significant differences were found by gender or tumor stage. Given the small sample size, these findings should be interpreted as preliminary. CONCLUSION: PPT1 expression is associated with histological tumor grade in OSCC and may reflect tumor aggressiveness. These initial results highlight the potential of PPT1 as a prognostic biomarker, warranting further validation in larger, multicenter studies.