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. 2000 Jan 18;82(2):374–380. doi: 10.1054/bjoc.1999.0929

p16 protein expression is associated with a poor prognosis in squamous cell carcinoma of the lung

C-I Huang 1, T Taki 1, M Higashiyama 2, N Kohno 3, M Miyake 1
PMCID: PMC2363276  PMID: 10646891

Abstract

An immunohistochemical analysis for p16 protein was performed in 171 patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Sixty-two carcinomas (36.3%) were classified as p16-negative. p16-negative tumours in squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) were significantly more than those in adenocarcinomas (P = 0.039). There was no significant difference in survival according to tumour p16 status in patients with NSCLCs or in patients with adenocarcinomas. In contrast, of patients with SCCs, the 5-year survival rate of patients with p16-negative tumours was significantly lower than those with p16-positive tumours (P = 0.001). Especially, the survival of patients with p16-negative tumours was significantly worse than that of patients with p16-positive tumours in the early stage of the SCC, e.g. stage I (P = 0.005). Multivariate analysis showed that p16 status and nodal status were significant prognostic factors for the survival of patients with SCCs of the lung (P = 0.024 and P = 0.008 respectively). In conclusion, our study showed that alteration of p16 was one of the significant factors of a poor prognosis in SCCs of the lung, and that p16 might play an important role in some SCCs of the lung due to its high prevalence and prognostic value. © 2000 Cancer Research Campaign

Keywords: p16, lung cancer, prognosis, immunohistochemistry

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Selected References

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