Immunohistochemical expression of p27kip1 in metastatic laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma

PurposeLaryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) is an interesting diagnostic and therapeutic issue. The diagnostic delay is mainly a consequence of the lack of evident symptoms in the early stage of the disease. The purpose of current studies was the evaluation of the expression of p27^kip1 in primary and metastatic LSCC in correlation with patients’ clinicopathological data.Material/methodsThe indirect immunohistochemical studies were performed on the series of 60 sections (primary tumor: 20 cases of N(0) and 20 cases of N(+), and nodal meta: 20 cases), using primary antibody against p27^kip1 [clone 1B4]. The expression of analyzed protein was performed using automated morphometric methods.ResultsThe p27^kip1 nuclear expression was found in 100% (40/40) cases of primary tumor, and in 85% (17/20) cases of SCC meta at lymph nodes. In primary LSCC N(0) the expression of p27^kip1 was significantly higher compared to N(+) cases (p = 0.036672). However, the p27^kip1 expression in SCC metastases was higher compared to the primary SCC.Moreover, the analyses based on the classification trees revealed the cutoff p27^kip1 expression in primary LSCC (IRS ≤ 76) which was characteristic for N(+) patients. Consequently, our analysis revealed that high expression of p27^kip1 (IRS > 76) was characteristic for N(0) patients.ConclusionsOur results suggest that p27^kip1 might be useful prognostic factor of metastatic potential in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma.