Immunohistochemical expression of p27kip1 in metastatic laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma

PurposeLaryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) is an interesting diagnostic and therapeutic issue. The diagnostic delay is mainly a consequence of the lack of evident symptoms in the early stage of the disease. The purpose of current studies was the evaluation of the expression of p27kip1 in primary and metastatic LSCC in correlation with patients’ clinicopathological data.Material/methodsThe indirect immunohistochemical studies were performed on the series of 60 sections (primary tumor: 20 cases of N(0) and 20 cases of N(+), and nodal meta: 20 cases), using primary antibody against p27kip1 [clone 1B4]. The expression of analyzed protein was performed using automated morphometric methods.ResultsThe p27kip1 nuclear expression was found in 100% (40/40) cases of primary tumor, and in 85% (17/20) cases of SCC meta at lymph nodes. In primary LSCC N(0) the expression of p27kip1 was significantly higher compared to N(+) cases (p = 0.036672). However, the p27kip1 expression in SCC metastases was higher compared to the primary SCC.Moreover, the analyses based on the classification trees revealed the cutoff p27kip1 expression in primary LSCC (IRS ≤ 76) which was characteristic for N(+) patients. Consequently, our analysis revealed that high expression of p27kip1 (IRS > 76) was characteristic for N(0) patients.ConclusionsOur results suggest that p27kip1 might be useful prognostic factor of metastatic potential in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma.