Clinical and Prognostic Significance of Cancer Stem Cell Markers in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma- A Scoping Review

Introduction: This scoping review was done to study the clinical and prognostic significance of cancer stem cell markers in oral squamous cell carcinoma, in the literature published from 2000 to 2022.Materials and Methods: PubMed, EMBASE and Scopus databases were thoroughly searched using various combinations of keywords and Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines were followed for analysis.Results: Database search yielded a total of 79 articles, out of which 30 articles were selected based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Out of 2132 total samples, 1920 specimen were oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), while the remaining samples included 176 cases of oral epithelial dysplasia and 36 samples of normal oral mucosa. Out of 30 selected articles, immunohistochemistry (IHC) was used in 25 studies. Among those, IHC alone was used in 20 studies, while in the other 5 IHC was used along with other techniques. The most commonly studies cancer stem cell marker was CD44 (66.67%) followed by CD133 (16.67%). ALDH1 and SOX2 were studied in 23.33%, OCT4 in 20%, CD24 in 16.67%, BMI-1 and NANOG in 10%, p63 and CD29 in 6.67% respectively.Conclusion: Among the cancer stem cell markers CD44, CD133, ALDH1, OCT-4, CD24, NANOG, and Bmi-1, showed positiv-ity in OSCC, while SOX2 showed both positive and negative expressions in OSCC. Even though IHC seems to be the most common techniques used, special molecular techniques such as quantitative real-time PCR and immunofluroscence provides more accurate results.