Expression of MCM2 as a Proliferative Marker in Actinic Keratosis and Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Background/aim: Minichromosome maintenance protein 2 (MCM2) can be considered an indicator of cancer clinical outcome. In this study, we tried to estimate the usefulness of assessing MCM2 protein expression in actinic keratosis (AK) and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC).

Materials and methods: The study included 22 lesions of AK, 57 of cSCC and 17 tissue samples of the healthy skin.

Results: Higher average expression of MCM2 protein in cSCC and AK was demonstrated in comparison to healthy skin (p=0.01). Likewise, the level of MCM2 expression differed statistically significantly (p=0.02) between SCC, AK, and healthy skin. Significant correlations between MCM2 expression and Ki-67 and p53 antigen were found (r=0.51, p=0.01; r=0.45, p=0.04 respectively) in AK lesions, however these relationships were not noted in cSCC.

Conclusion: MCM2 is overexpressed in both AK and cSCC lesions, however this protein cannot be considered an important indicator of proliferation in cSCC.