Premium
Prognostic significance of p53 expression in oral squamous cell carcinoma without neck node metastases
Author(s) -
Carlos de Vicente Juan,
Junquera Gutiérrez Luis Manuel,
Zapatero Agustín Herrero,
Fresno Forcelledo Manuel Florentino,
HernándezVallejo Gonzalo,
López Arranz Juan Sebastián
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
head and neck
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.012
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1097-0347
pISSN - 1043-3074
DOI - 10.1002/hed.10339
Subject(s) - medicine , immunohistochemistry , malignancy , stage (stratigraphy) , basal cell , oncology , univariate analysis , cell , pathology , multivariate analysis , clinical significance , survival analysis , biology , paleontology , genetics
Background. Aberrations of the p53 gene and overexpression of its protein are widely recognized markers of malignancy including oral squamous cell carcinomas. This study was performed to evaluate the relationship of immunoexpression of p53 protein in series of 91 squamous cell carcinomas of the oral cavity with clinicopathologic parameters and to investigate whether p53 immunoexpression might influence the clinical outcome of the disease. Methods. From a group of 287 consecutive patients, 91 surgically treated ones were randomly selected. P53 protein expression was investigated by means of immunohistochemistry. Clinical and histopathologic data were gathered, and the patient survival was analyzed. Results. Of the oral carcinomas, 52.7% ( n = 48) overexpressed p53, using a threshold of 10% stained cell nuclei. There was a negative correlation of p53 immunoexpression with a histologic grade of differentiation ( r = −0.236, p = .06) but not with clinical variables. Overall survival rate was 59% at 5 years. In univariate analysis, tumor size, node status, and advanced clinical stage were significantly associated with shortened overall survival. In patients without neck node metastases, p53 showed a strong correlation with survival ( p = .01). In multivariate analysis performed only on N0 patients, tumor extension and p53 immunoexpression were found to be the only independent prognostic parameters with relative risks of 1.9 and 4.3, respectively. Conclusions. A strong relationship was observed between p53 immunoexpression and poor prognosis in patients with oral squamous cell carcinomas without neck node metastases. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck 26: 22–30, 2004