「刺猬信号通路」是一种基本的癌症干细胞通路，在胚胎发育中起着重要作用，并被认为在成年人中起抑制作用。然而，成年人中「刺猬信号通路」的异常激活已被证明在癌症发展中起作用。因此，本研究的目的是确定「刺猬信号通路」在口腔癌中的作用。通过定量实时聚合酶链式反应（qRT-PCR），评估了124名患者刺猬信号通路的表达情况。利用Pearson卡方检验分析基因表达与临床病理参数之间的关联，并利用Kaplan-Meier分析进行生存分析。发现SHH和GLI1与淋巴结状态显著相关，SUFU与年龄显著相关。在口腔癌患者中，SMO和SUFU的预后较差。根据我们的发现，IHH在口腔癌中发挥了激活HH信号通路的关键作用。这些发现证实了「刺猬信号通路」作为口腔癌早期疾病预测的生物标志物的使用，以及其在肿瘤侵袭和恶性程度中的作用。© 2023. 作者授权给德国Springer Nature旗下的Springer-Verlag GmbH。

Hedgehog Signaling, a basic cancer stem cell pathway, plays a major role during the embryonic development, is known to play a quiescent role in adults. However, aberrant activation of Hedgehog signaling in adults is known to play a role in cancer development. Hence, the aim of the study was to identify the role of Hedgehog signaling pathway in the Oral cancers.The expression of Hedgehog signaling pathway was evaluated in 124 patients through the quantitative real-time PCR. The association between the gene expression and clinico-pathological parameters were analyzed using the Pearson chi-square test and survival analysis was carried out using Kaplan-Meier analysis.SHH and GLI1 was found to be significantly associated with the Lymph Node Status and SUFU was significantly associated with the Age. SMO and SUFU were found to have a worse prognosis in oral cancer patients. According to our findings, IHH plays a critical role in the activation of the HH signaling pathway in oral cancer.These findings back up the use of the Hedgehog signaling pathway as a biomarker for early disease prediction in oral cancer, as well as its role in tumor aggressiveness and invasiveness.© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.