Fascin over-expression is associated with aggressiveness of oral squamous cell carcinoma

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is associated with a high potential of tumor recurrence and metastasis, leading to poor prognosis. Cell motility is an important factor in the progression and metastasis of cancers. Recently, Fascin has been linked to tumor progression by induction of cell motility. However, the precise roles of Fascin in OSCC have not been elucidated clearly. The aim of this study was to analyze the roles of Fascin in OSCC progression using OSCC clinical samples. We demonstrated that Fascin over-expression was found in OSCC clinical samples and its expression was significantly associated with nodal metastasis (p = 0.027), tumor recurrence (p < 0.001) and poor patients' overall survival (p = 0.013). Consistently, Fascin proteins were detected in all OSCC cell lines with the expression level corresponding to the invasion ability. To specifically investigate the mechanism of Fascin in OSCC, we examined the E-cadherin expression in the same set of OSCC specimens. Fascin was negatively correlated with E-cadherin expression (p = 0.018, r = -0.513). In conclusion, our findings suggested that Fascin over-expression might enhance OSCC aggressiveness, possibly by interacting with E-cadherin expression.