p53 overexpression impacts on the prognosis of laryngeal squamous cell carcinomas.

OBJECTIVES To investigate the prognostic implications of p53 expression in the surgical margins of laryngeal squamous cell carcinomas. METHODS Thirty one patients with T3-4N0M0 cancers with pathologically negative margins were analyzed by immunohistochemistry (IHC) to detect expression of p53. RESULTS The p53 positive rates by IHC in the surgical margin were 16.1% (5/31). In the p53 positive margin group, the recurrent rate was higher than those without (80% vs 19.2%, P = 0.006). Also, the median free of disease period in the p53 positive margin group was shorter than other group (22.2 vs 47.8 months, P < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS We found that the overexpression of p53 can serve a prognostic role for both recurrence and disease-specific mortality in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. p53 expression could stratify patients, in an easy and inexpensive way, according to their risk of local or regional recurrence.