This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on ISI (14)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Genetics  • Genetic Counseling/ Testing/ Therapy  • Prognosis/ Outcomes  • Oncology  • Head & Neck Cancer  • Genetics of Head & Neck Disease  • Neoplasms of Head & Neck  • Pathology of Head & Neck  • Alert me on articles by topic

Xin Xie, MD, PhD; Ole Petter F. Clausen, MD, PhD; Morten Boysen, MD, PhD

Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2002;128:897-902.

Objective  To investigate the prognostic significance of p21^WAF1/CIP1 expression and its relationship with p53 accumulation and other apoptotic markers such as Bax, Bcl-2, and apoptotic index in relation to disease-specific survival in oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma (SCC).

Design  A 10-year retrospective clinical study. Information about clinical findings, treatment, and follow-up has been recorded prospectively.

Patients and Methods  Diagnostic, formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded sections taken from 80 randomly selected patients before treatment for T1 to T4 oral tongue SCC were stained immunohistochemically with p21^WAF1/CIP1. The percentages of positive nuclei that stained positive for tumor were determined.

Main Outcome Measures  The significance of prognostic parameters was tested by log-rank and Kaplan-Meier methods for the univariate analysis. The Cox proportional hazards regression model was used for multivariate analysis.

Results  Expression of p21^WAF1/CIP1 correlated inversely with T classification and clinical stage (P = .02 and P = .006, respectively) but not with N classification, tumor differentiation, or apoptosis-related variables such as p53 accumulation, apoptotic index, and Bax and Bcl-2 expression. Patients with tumors expressing high p21^WAF1/CIP1 values had increased disease-specific survival time (P = .03). The correlation between p21^WAF1/CIP1 expression and disease-specific survival was even more significant when restricted to p53-negative tumors (P = .002). A 2-parameter combination between p21^WAF1/CIP1 expression and Bax expression or p21^WAF1/CIP1 expression and p53 accumulation, respectively, revealed an enhanced prognostic potential (P<.001) when compared with single parameters.

Conclusion  The expression of p21^WAF1/CIP1, particularly in combination with p53 accumulation or Bax expression, has prognostic value in oral tongue SCC.

From the Department of Otolaryngology (Drs Xie and Boysen) and the Institute for Pathology (Drs Xie and Clausen), The National Hospital, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Pilot Study of Neoadjuvant Treatment with Erlotinib in Nonmetastatic Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma
Thomas et al.
Clin. Cancer Res. 2007;13:7086-7092.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Expression of p21WAF in Salivary Gland Mucoepidermoid Carcinoma and Its Relation to Histologic Grade
Etemad-Moghadam et al.
INT J SURG PATHOL 2007;15:6-13.
ABSTRACT