Prognostic value of ezrin expression in common epithelial tumors: An immunohistochemical study

Ezrin is a member of the ezrin–radixin–moesin family of proteins. Overexpression of ezrin protein might play an important role in the process of tumor cell invasion and metastasis. Non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) is the most common form of cancer seen in population. The term NMSC can theoretically be applied to all cutaneous cancers excluding melanoma. The aim of the study was to evaluate the prognostic value of ezrin expression in basal cell carcinoma (BCC), cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), seborrheic keratosis (SK) and keratoacanthoma (KA). This retrospective study included 76 paraffin blocks classified into: group I (20 paraffin blocks of BCC), group II (20 paraffin blocks of SCC), group III (12 paraffin blocks of SK), group IV (14 paraffin blocks of KA) and group V (10 paraffin blocks of normal healthy skin were used as a control group). All were subjected to the ordinary hematoxylin and eosin stain (H&E) and immunohistochemical staining for ezrin. This study revealed a statistically significant difference between ezrin expression in different tumor groups and controls. The expression of ezrin in SCC was higher than in BCC, SK and KA. There was a statistically significant difference of ezrin expression in different tumor groups regarding both membranous and cytoplasmic expression of ezrin. The current study suggested that dysregulation of ezrin may be important in the development of cutaneous epithelial malignancies and tumor grade. Immunohistochemical localization of ezrin may be useful marker in the differentiation between cutaneous SCC and KA.