[High expression of p65 transcription factor and its significance in tongue carcinoma]

To examine the correlation between p65 expression and the metastasis and prognosis in tongue carcinoma.

The immunohistochemical expression of p65 was examined in 50 cases of tongue carcinoma, and the clinical and histopathologic records were retrospectively analyzed.

Overexpression of p65 in cytoplasma and nucleus was found in 64% cases of tongue carcinoma. There was significant difference of p65 expression among different TNM stages, and the higher expression rate of p65 was found in higher stages. Overexpression of p65 was also related to lymph node metastasis. Significantly greater increase in expression levels of p65 was found in the metastatic cases (n = 22) compared to the nonmetastatic cases (n = 10). However, there was no significant difference of p65 expression among different histopathologic grading. The 5-year survival rate of p65 positive and negative group was 59.3% and 88.9% respectively, and there was significant difference in Kaplan-Meier survival curve (chi2 = 5.6, P < 0.05).

The results suggest that the expression of p65 was important to predict the metastasis and prognosis in tongue carcinoma.