Association of p53 expression with second primary tumour development in hypopharyngeal carcinoma

Abnormalities of p53 tumour suppressor gene are detected in a diversity of malignancies and play an important role in their pathogenesis. Hypopharynge al carcinoma is the most morbid among head and neck squamous cell carcinoma s because of the high incidence of treatment failures and because a biologi cal marker predictive of the treatment failures remains elusive. The expres sion of p53 protein in 46 hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas was exami ned histochemically and p53 immunoreactivity was found in 19 of 46 cases (4 1.3 per cent). The rate of second primary tumour development was significan tly higher in the p53-positive group than in the p53-negative group (p = 0. 039), whereas that of tumour recurrence was not significantly different bet ween the two. Moreover, there was no statistically significant difference i n either overall or disease-free survival between the p53-positive and -neg ative groups. These results indicate that although p53 expression significa ntly correlates with second primary tumour development in patients with hyp opharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas, it is not predictive of the clinical outcome.