Combination of MUC1 and MUC4 expression predicts clinical outcome in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma

Both MUC1 and MUC4 are high molecular weight glycoproteins and are independent indicators of worse prognosis in many human epithelial cancers including oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). However, there has been no investigation of the clinical importance of the co-expression of MUC1 and MUC4 in OSCC. The aim of this study was to evaluate the co-expression profile of MUC1/MUC4 and analyze the prognostic significance in OSCC. We examined the expression profile of MUC1 and MUC4 in OSCC tissues from 206 patients using immunohistochemistry. The co-expression profile of MUC1/MUC4 and its prognostic significance in OSCC was statistically analyzed. MUC1 and MUC4 overexpression were strongly correlated with each other (p