Serum Level of Mast Cell Tryptase in Patients with Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma: Lack of Correlation with Clinicopathologic Factors

Background: Mast cells can influence tumor progression via different pathways and increased mast celldensity has been demonstrated in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). It has been shown that the serumtryptase level is elevated with some malignant tumours and may thus be a useful parameter. However, there areno data available about OSCC. The main aim of this study was the evaluation of mast cell tryptase (MCT) levelin OSCC patient serum. Materials and
Methods: In this cross-sectional, analytic study, the circulating levels ofMCT were assessed in sera of 55 OSCC patients and 34 healthy individuals with ELISA technique.
Results: Theserum MCT level in OSCC patients was 12-14 ng/ml, which was not significantly higher than the healthy controlgroup. While the serum level of MCT was higher with larger tumours, there was no apparent correlation withclinico-pathological features such as patient age, gender, tumor location, stage, nodal status, distant metastasis,histological grade and smoking.
Conclusions: Our findings showed that despite the results obtained from studiesof other malignant tumors, serum level of MCT in OSCC patients could not be a credited as a reliable indicatorof the presence or progression of tumours.