The Expression And Clinical Significance Of P16, P63 And Rb In Tongue Squamous Cell Carcinoma

To study the expression of p16, p63 and Rb proteins in tongue squamous cell carcinomas (TSCCs)and adjacent noncancerous tissues, and furthermore analyze the correlation between the expression of p16, p63 and Rb proteins and patients' clinicopathological characteristics in TSCCs, we examined the expression of p16, p63 and Rb proteins in 46 cases of TSCCs and 15 cases of adjacent noncancerous tissues using immunohistochemical staining method. The results showed that the positive expression rates of p16, p63 and Rb proteins in adjacent noncancerous tissues were 100.00%,15.38% and 100.00% respectively, while the positive expression rates of p16, p63 and Rb proteins in TSCCs were 43.48%,76.09% and 78.26% respectively, having significant difference from normal groups, with Statistical significances(P<0.05).The expression of p16 protein in TSCCs correlated with lymph node metastasis and histopathology grade, and expression of p63 protein in TSCCs correlated with histopathology grade, and expression of Rb protein in TSCCs correlated with tumor size and infiltrating degree and patients' age(P<0.05),while all of them were not significantly related to the other clinicopathological characteristics (P>0.05). Negative correlation was found between expression of p16 and Rb proteins(P<0.05).The results demonstrate that expression of p16, p63 and Rb proteins may have a synergetic effect on the occurrence and development of TSCC, suggesting that the derangement of cell cycle and the malignant cell proliferation are closely related to tumorigenesis of TSCC. It offers new theories and ideas for the research in the tumorigenesis of TSCC.