[Relation between epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and p53 expression and radiocurability of laryngeal...

Radiotherapy and surgery are the most important treatment modalities for the majority of laryngeal cancers. Because of high efficacy and better organ preservation radiotherapy is generally preferred for early and intermediate stage of the disease. Some of patients with more locally advanced cancers can still be cured by means of radiotherapy, but we have not got reliable prognostics factors for predicting radiocurability. THE AIM OF MY STUDY: was to investigate the value of p53 and EGFR expression for predicting clinical outcomes of laryngeal cancer patients treated with radiotherapy.

The study included 50 patients with laryngeal cancer treated in Department of Radiotherapy of Silesian Oncology Center between the years 1998 and 2003. Paraffin sections from archival material were studied immunohistochemically for detection p53 and EGFR and correlated with clinical parameters and local tumor control and patient survival.

Accumulation of p53 and EGFR were detected in 65% and 50% of tumor respectively. No relationship was observed between immunostaining for investigated proteins and clinicopathologic factors. The TNM tumor stage was the most significant prognostic factor for local control and overall survival. p53 was favorable prognostic factor with 5-years disease free survival rate 82% for patients p53-positive and 75% for p53-negative patients (p = 0.04).

The TNM tumor stage is the most important prognostic factor for laryngeal cancer. Tumors accumulating p53 have better prognosis what indicates possibly role for p53 immunohistochemical analysis for predicting outcomes of radiotherapy in patients with laryngeal cancer.