Loss of p16 expression has prognostic significance in human nasopharyngeal carcinoma. |
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| Authors: | Antti A M?kitie Christina MacMillan James Ho Wei Shi Andrew Lee Brian O'Sullivan David Payne Melania Pintilie Bernard Cummings John Waldron Padraig Warde Jonathan Irish Dale Brown Ralph Gilbert Patrick Gullane Fei-Fei Liu Suzanne Kamel-Reid |
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| Affiliation: | Department of Otolaryngology, Princess Margaret Hospital/Ontario Cancer Institute, Toronto M5G 2M9, Canada. |
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| Abstract: | PURPOSE: p16 is an important inhibitor of cell cycle progression; absence of p16 can thus result in increased cellular proliferation. In nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), absence of p16 has been reported in association with presence of the EBV and pRb. We therefore examined p16, pRb, and EBV-encoded RNA (EBER) expression in biopsy specimens from 84 patients with newly diagnosed NPC, who were treated primarily with curative radiation therapy. Our objective was to determine whether there was a correlation between these parameters and clinical outcome in NPC. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: Sections were cut from archival formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tumor blocks from NPC patients. p16 and pRb expression were determined using polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies, respectively. The presence of EBV was determined by in situ hybridization for EBER. The percentage of positively staining tumor nuclei was scored for p16 or pRb immunoreactivity. Relative intensity and proportion of cells with EBER signals were also documented. RESULTS: p16 expression was reduced (
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