An Investigation of Cellular Proliferation and Nuclear Morphology in the Multi-Step Progression of Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Abstract

With 3.5 million cases diagnosed in more than 2 million people in the United States annually, skin cancer leads as a frequent and devastating disease carrying a large public health burden. Understanding the multi-step disease progression is crucial for developing interventional strategies that can reduce the incidence as well as the risk of recurrence for non-melanoma skin cancers. In this study of 40 tissue samples, cellular proliferation is quantified and analyzed in four categories that represent the stages of progression for SCC carcinogenesis: Normal, Sun-exposed, Actinic Keratosis, and Squamous Cell Carcinoma. The results in this study show an exponential increase in levels of Proliferative Cell Nuclear Antigen (PCNA) expression with each progressed category, as well as a positive association with nuclear morphology feature values related to sun-damaged nuclei that were published in a previous study. These findings support the utility of investigative techniques from the field of immunohistochemistry in studying the UV-induced skin carcinogenesis model for the multi-step disease progression of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. Furthermore, this study elucidates the complexities involved in clinical histological diagnoses for non-melanoma skin cancers.