A study of secondary cutaneous amyloidosis in basal cell carcinoma in Chinese patients: lack of correlation with bcl-2 or p53 protein expression

Pigmented basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is an uncommon form of BCC among Cauca sians, In contrast, the majority of BCC in Orientals are pigmented BCC, To assess the occurrence of secondary amyloid deposits in BCC among Chinese pa tients, a retrospective study was conducted on 53 BCC specimens. We used a terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end-labeling metho d for detecting the apoptotic cells. In addition, immunohistochemical stain ing was performed to examine the expression of the B-cell leukemia/lymphoma -2 gene (bcl-2) and p53 protein. Of the 53 BCC specimens, 37 (69.8%) were p igmented BCC and 31 (58.5%) showed amyloid deposits in the stroma of the tu mor cells. The mean percentage of apoptotic tumor cells was 0.29%. Immunost aining of bcl-2 and p53 was detected in 33 BCCs (62.3%) and 19 BCCs (35.8%) , respectively, No relationship between amyloid deposition and the number o f apoptotic cells was found. In addition, there was no correlation between amyloid deposition and bcl-2 protein expression or between amyloid depositi on and p53 protein expression. Our results indicate that the frequency of s econdary amyloidosis in BCC among Chinese patients is not higher than that reported in the West. Although no correlation could be detected between amy loid deposition and bcl-2/p53 protein expression, the possible role of apop tosis in the pathogenesis of amyloid deposition in BCC still needs further investigation.