The IMMUNOHISTOCHEMICAL EXPRESSION OF NOVEL B7-H6 IN ORAL SQUAMOUS CELL CARCINOMA AND CORRELATION WITH HISTOLOGICAL DIFFERENTIATION AND CLINICOPATHOLOGICAL PARAMETERS

B7-H6 is a new immune checkpoint molecule related to B7 family; however, little research has been performed to determine its expression among tumors. In this study, we investigated the immunohistochemical expression of B7-H6 protein in 141 biopsy proven oral squamous cell carcinoma tissues. The specimens were subjected for immunohistochemical analysis to evaluated B7-H6 expression and was graded according to the intensity of cytoplasm and membrane staining. The distribution of B7-H6 expression was also correlated with different clinicopathological parameters of oral squamous cell carcinoma.Overall, 69 out of 141 oral squamous cell carcinoma cases had shown the expression of B7-H6 protein, majority of which belongs to moderately differentiated histological grade. This accounts for strong statistical association of B7-H6 with oral squamous cell carcinoma (P-value=0.001). The distribution of B7-H6 was also observed across broad range of clinicopathological characteristics of disease, however only long term naswar consumers have shown significant statistical difference with B7-H6 expression. We thus conclude that, B7-H6 may represent a new marker for oral squamous cell carcinoma with potential to forecast biological aggressiveness of oral squamous cell carcinoma. Hence, B7-H6 may serve as an immune target for oral squamous cell carcinoma therapy, which needs to evaluated in future studies.