Promoter Hypermethylation of FHIT and P14 Genes in OSCC Patients among North Indian Population

Cancer is the leading cause for death worldwide causing millions of death. Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is one the leading cancers causing mortality across the world. Major cause for oral cancer is the smoking, chewing of tobacco and alcohol consumption. It has been found that epigenetic changes are also responsible for the oral cancer. These are caused due to environmental and dietary factors. FHIT is a tumor suppressor gene which gets hypermethylated due to several factors. It was observed that the FHIT hypermethylation was found to be significant in the north Indian population (p-value= 0.0007). FHIT hypermethylation was observed in 55% (22 out of 40) of the samples. It was also found to be significant with respect to all the three risk factors. This statistical calculation was done through Epiinfo 7.2 software. However p14 hypermethylation was not found to be significant in OSCC patients among north Indian population. This is the first report on the promoter hypermethylation of FHIT gene in OSCC patients among north Indian population.