Relationship Among Cancerous Cell Apoptosis,P73 Expression And Clinical Prognosis In Patients With Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Objective: To investigate the relationship among cancerous cell apoptosis > p73 expression and clinical prognosis of patients with poorly differenetiated squamous cell carcinama of nasopharynx (NPC).Methods: Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated nick end labeling (TUNEL) technique and immunohistochemistry method were applied to detect NPC tissue from 48 patients with follow up data (27 with paratumor tissue) and 10 normal nasopharyngeal tissue (NNPT).Results: l)The apoptotic index (AI) of 48 NPC(0.l%-4.7%,the mean was 0.75%)was significantly lower than that of paratumor tissue(0. !%-13.3%,the mean was 2.73%)(p=0.003),but wasn't different than that of NNPT( 0%-1.9%,the mean was 42%)(p==0.351).2)The AI of 20 patients with positive p73 expression in NPC was from 0.1% to 4.7%.The mean of AI was 0.78%.The AI had no obvious correlation with the p73 expression in NPC(p=0.534).3)Althought it wasn't associated with patients' age,sex ,with or \vithout recurrent ,clinical stage(p>0.05), the NPC AI had negative correlation with the patients' survial time. The patients with higher AI had worse surival rate than those with lower AI (p<0.01).And the NPC AI as well as with or without recurrent was independent risk factor by cox regression analysis (p<0.05). Conclusions: 1 )The NPC isn't a tumor with high apoptosis The NPC carcerous cell apoptosis isn't active and isn't significantly different from that of NNPT.2) Thep73 expression hasn't correlation with the AI in NPC.3) The AI of NPC is a prognotic fetor of NPC patients. The patients with higher AI have worse prognosis.