Relationship of Immunohistochemical Expression of Protein 16 (p16) to Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Subtype at Haji Adam Malik General Hospital Medan

Abstract

Introduction:

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma is a malignant tumor that originates from the epithelial cells of the nasopharyngeal mucosa or gland and is a malignant tumor of the head and neck area. Immunohistochemistry Protein 16 is a tumor suppressor gene (TSG), which is  a cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) inhibitor that regulates tumor cells through the G1 phase of the often inactive cell cycle in cancer. Research on the relationship  of p16 expression to nasopharyngeal carcinoma has not been done much.

Method:

This study used 46 slide/block samples of paraffin in Nasopharyngeal carcinoma cases that had been histopathologically diagnosed at the Anatomical Pathology Unit of H. Adam Malik Hospital Medan from January 2022 to May 2024. All clinicopathology data is taken from medical records/pathology archives. p16  expression is assessed in the nucleus and or cytoplasm of tumor cells. The assessment  of p16  expression was carried out semi-quantitatively based on the multiplication of area and intensity in the expressed tumor cells. Statistical analysis was carried out using the Eta test.

Result:

Among the 46 nasopharyngeal carcinoma samples, 21 samples were found to have positive expressions with strong positive values in  the NKSCC subtype  as many as 14 samples (30.4%) and weak positive values in  the NKSCC subtype  as many as 7 samples (15.2%). Meanwhile, the results of immunohistochemical staining p16 were most negatively expressed, namely in  the NKSCC subtype  as many as 23 samples (50.0%) and in  the KSCC subtype  as many as 2 samples (4.3%). This variable Eta test was carried out and a p-value of 0.195 was obtained.

conclution:

There was no relationship of p16  expression to the nasopharyngeal carcinoma subtype.