Affiliations: [a] Oral Surgery and Implantology Unit, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Santiago, Santiago de Compostela, Spain | [b] Department of Pathology and Forensic Sciences, University Hospital and School of Medicine, Santiago de Compostela, Spain | [c] Laboratorio Oncología Traslacional. Fundación Idichus, Spain | [d] Unidad de Medicina Molecular, Fundación Pública Galega de Medicina Xenómica, Hospital Clinico Universitario, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Mario Pérez-Sayáns, Oral Surgery and Implantology Unit, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Santiago (IDIS), Santiago de Compostela C.P. 15782, Spain. Tel.: +34 626233504; E-mail: [email protected].
Abstract: Objectives:Downregulation of p21Waf1/CIP1 (a cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor) has been reported for mouth cancer. The goal of this article is to quantitatively report expression of p21Waf1/CIP1 and evaluate its relationship with the clinical and prognostic factors. Materials and Methods:this is a retrospective study of 68 patients diagnosed with OSCC. We constructed a tissue microarray to develop an immunohistochemical assessment of p21Waf1/CIP1 expression. A multivariate analysis using a forward-selection stepwise regression model (Cox, 1972) for predicting survival was performed. Results:The quantitative expression of p21Waf1/CIP1 showed a statistically significant relationship with the risk of lymph node metastasis, showing a higher expression in patients with homolateral single nodes of less than 3 cm (N1) (X2=6.58; p< 0.05). We found no statistically significant relationship with any other clinical or pathological parameters. The Cox univariate regression analysis verifies that the effect of the value of p21Waf1/CIP1 on survival was not statistically significant (p=0.6). The best predictive multivariate Cox analysis included the covariates: recurrence, p21Waf1/CIP1, gender, stage, and dysplasia in the adjacent margin. All these variables showed a statistically significant relationship with survival, except p21Waf1/CIP1. Conclusion:quantitative determination of p21Waf1/CIP1 standardizes and facilitates its analysis. Although its expression increases in patients with N1 regional metastasis, the loss of p21Waf1/CIP1 does not seem to have any relationship with the clinical and pathological variables of the tumors.
Keywords: p21Waf1/CIP1, oral squamous cell carcinoma, cyclin-dependent kinases inhibitors, multivariate model of survival
