Clinical significance of the expression of p53,p63 and p73 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

OBJECTIVE To investigate the possible effects of p53,p63 and p73 during the progression of nasopharyngeal carcinoma(NPC),and study the clinical significance.METHODS The expression of p53,p63 and p73 in 56 cases of NPC and 15 cases of chronic inflammation tissues were checked by immunohistochemistry.RESULTS p53,p63 and p73 protein expressed in the nucleus.The positive rates of p53 and p63 in NPC were significantly higher than that chronic inflammation tissues(P﹤0.01),and there were a positive correlation between the expression of p53 and p63 protein in NPC(P﹤0.05).But the expression of p73 had no significant difference among NPC and chronic inflammation tissues(P﹥0.05).There was no significant correlation between p53,p63 and p73 expression and patient's gender,age and neck lymph node metastasis(P﹥0.05),and the expression of p63 and p73 was correlated with the clinical stage of NPC(P﹤0.05).CONCLUSION The expression of p53,p63 and p73 protein may play an important role in the development of NPC.