Transferrin receptor in oral tumors.

The transferrin receptor (TfR) appears in vigorously proliferating cells. We did an immunohistochemical study of TfR in oral tissues and a quantitative analysis by flow cytometry of TfR in a cancer cell line after an anticancer drug treatment. TfR was found in the parabasal and basal layers of the normal epithelium, but rarely in benign tumors. Generally, in the malignant tumors, the poor prognostic cases showed strong staining regardless of the differentiation of the tumor. In the flow cytometric analysis, the amount of TfR decreased according to the reduction of the proliferative ability of cancer cells. These results suggest that TfR expression may be useful as a prognostic marker.