Decreased expression of Bar is correlated with poor prognosis in oral and oropharyngeal carcinoma

We investigated the expression of apoptosis-related factors, p53, Pax, Bcl- 2, and spontaneous apoptosis in 57 cases of oral and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) by immunochemical staining and ApopTag kit. Positive expression of Pax was inversely associated with advanced tumor stage (P = 0 .0225), lymph node metastasis (P = 0.0225), clinical stage (P = 0.0083) and poor prognosis (P = 0.0478). Positive expression of p53 was related to poo r prognosis (P = 0.0445) and was associated with negative expression of Pax (P = 0.0439). The apoptosis index did not correlate with clinical outcome. These results suggest that abnormality of Pax expression plays an importan t role in tumor progression in oral and oropharyngeal SCC. (C) 1999 Elsevie r Science ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.