en Cancer Cancer Original Article Original Article Aberrant protein glycosylation is known to be associated with the development of various cancers. Although fucosylation is essential for normal biological functions, alterations in fucosylation are strongly implicated in cancer and increasing metastatic potential. Altered fucosyltarnsferases (FUTs) and fucosidases are found to be involved in many types of malignancies. In this study, we examined the mRNA expressions of fucosidase (<em>FUCA1</em>) and FUTs (<em>FUT</em>s (<em>FUT3</em>, <em>FUT4</em>, <em>FUT5</em>, <em>FUT6</em>, <em>FUT8</em>) in human oral cancer tissues. All <em>FUT</em>s and <em>FUCA1</em> were significantly (P &le; 0.05) down-regulated in malignant tissues in comparison with their adjacent normal tissues. The relationship between the clinicopathological parameters and the expression of <em>FUT</em>s and <em>FUCA1</em> revealed that higher mRNA levels of <em>FUT4</em>, <em>FUT5</em>, and <em>FUT8</em> and lower levels of <em>FUT3</em> were associated with progression of disease and lymph node metastasis in oral carcinoma indicating their role in oral cancer progression. Collectively, results suggest that elevated mRNA levels of <em>FUT4</em>, <em>FUT5</em> and <em>FUT8</em> may be used as worst prognostic indicators for oral carcinoma. Oral cancer, hallmarks of cancer, glycosylation, fucosylation, fucosyltransferases, fucosidase 123 132 http://ijmcmed.org/browse.php?a_code=A-10-3273-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Kruti Mehta krutimehta2311@gmail.com 100319475328460021200 100319475328460021200 No Molecular Oncology Laboratory, Cancer Biology Department, The Gujarat Cancer & Research Institute, Asarwa, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. Kinjal Patel kinjalpatelmg@yahoo.com 100319475328460021201 100319475328460021201 No Molecular Oncology Laboratory, Cancer Biology Department, The Gujarat Cancer & Research Institute, Asarwa, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. Shashank Pandya shashank.pandya@gcriindia.org 100319475328460021202 100319475328460021202 No Surgical Oncology Department, The Gujarat Cancer & Research Institute, Asarwa, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. Prabhudas Patel prabhudas_p@hotmail.com 100319475328460021203 100319475328460021203 Yes Molecular Oncology Laboratory, Cancer Biology Department, The Gujarat Cancer & Research Institute, Asarwa, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.