Cureus. 2025 Apr 23;17(4):e82853. doi: 10.7759/cureus.82853. eCollection 2025 Apr.
ABSTRACT
Background Head and neck cancer (HNC) surrounds many malignancies that affect mucosal linings, lymphatic tissues, and salivary glands. The predominant subtypes include squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), Hodgkin lymphoma (HL), and pleomorphic adenoma (PA). One long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) known as B-cell lymphoma 1 (BCL1) has been observed to be a key regulator of tumor progression, metastasis, and resistance to chemotherapy. Objective This study aims to quantify the expression of BCL1 across HNC subtypes to evaluate its diagnostic and prognostic relevance. Materials and methodology A case-control study was conducted for nine months from February 2023 to October 2023. The study involved 160 HNC patients and 40 healthy controls. Blood samples were collected, and RNA extraction, cDNA synthesis, and RT-qPCR analysis were done afterward using BCL1-specific primers. Data were analyzed by using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) in SPSS v.26 (IBM Corp, Armonk, NY, US) with p<0.05 considered statistically significant. Results In patients with HNC, elevated relative gene fold levels of BCL1 highlighted malignancy in squamous cell carcinoma (SCC; 3.19±0.72), Hodgkin lymphoma (HL; 1.91±0.72), and pleomorphic adenoma (PA; 2.24±0.72), in comparison to the control group (1.07±0.72). SCC patients showed the highest expression, which correlated with advanced tumor stages (Stage IV: 60%). Conclusion There was an overexpression of BCL1 observed in HNC subtypes, which highlighted its role as an important biomarker for tumor aggressiveness and therapeutic resistance. This advocates its integration into frameworks of precision oncology.
PMID:40416279 | PMC:PMC12101792 | DOI:10.7759/cureus.82853
