Aim: There is still controversy on the incidence of positive expression of bcl-2 and its prognostic significance for oral tongue carcinoma patients who are treated by surgery. The present study aims at resolving the controversy on the clinicopathologic significance of bcl-2 in a well selected group of patients who satisfy the recruitment criteria: (1) oral tongue carcinoma, (2) squamous cell carcinoma, (3) primary surgical treatment.
Method: Bcl-2 expression was studied by immunohistochemistry on glossectomy specimens of 73 patients. The expression of bcl-2 was correlated with clinicopathologic data.
Results: Of the 73 tumours, 11% had positive expression of bcl-2. Bcl-2 expression was not significantly correlated with tumour grade, stage, nodal metastasis and survival.
Conclusion: Bcl-2 expression played a minor role in oral tongue carcinoma. It had no significant correlation with tumour grade, stage and nodal metastasis. It also had no prognostic value on survival for patients who were treated by primary surgery.