Potential Utility of Cell Free High Mobility Group AT-hook 2 (HMGA2) as a Prognostic Biomarker in Liquid Biopsies of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Locoregional spread is a frequent finding in oral cancer which dictates poor prognosis. HMGA2 expression has been linked to malignant traits of oral cancer in tissue biopsies however, data on HMGA2 expression in liquid biopsies in oral cancer is sparse. Purpose of this study was to explore prognostic relevance of HMGA2 in liquid biopsies of oral cancer patients. After obtaining approval from Institutional Review Board of Ziauddin University and informed written consent from study subjects, expression of circulating HMGA2 was evaluated in 96 OSCC cases and 100 age and sex matched controls via real time PCR using specific set of primers. We further analyzed relationship of various sociodemographic and clinicopathological variables with HMGA2expression and explored its prognostic potential. Expression was seen in 22 (23%) cases. A higher expression was observed among subjects with local invasion (52.6% vs 47.4 %), distant metastasis (71.4% vs 28.6%) and tumor recurrence (57.1% vs 42.9%) p.