Importance of FOXP3 in prognosis and its relationship with p16 in tonsillar squamous cell carcinoma
Kwonoh Park1, Kyung Ja Cho, Miji Lee
1Department of Oncology, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, 88, Olympic-Ro 43-Gil, Songpa-gu, Seoul, 138-736, Korea. sbkim3@amc.seoul.kr.
Aim:
We examined the relationship between p16, a surrogate marker of human papilloma virus (HPV), and FOXP3, marker of regulatory T-cells, in tonsillar squamous cell carcinoma (TSCC), and assessed their prognostic potential.
Materials And Methods:
The tumors of 79 patients with locally advanced TSCC treated from 2000 to 2008 were subjected to immunohistochemistry (IHC) assays for p16 and FOXP3 using tissue microarrays.
Results:
Sixty-three tumors (80%) were p16-positive and 38 (48%) were FOXP3-positive on IHC. FOXP3 correlated positively with p16 (p=0.011). The p16-positive group had a significantly higher 5-year overall survival (OS) rate than the p16-negative group [78% vs. 63%, hazard ratio (HR)=0.347, p=0.025]. The FOXP3-positive group had a significantly higher 5-year OS rate than the - negative group (89% vs. 61%, HR=0.158, p=0.003). Multivariate analysis indicated that FOXP3 is an independent prognostic factor (HR=0.11, p=0.001) but p16 did not reach statistical significance (HR=2.17, p=0.131).
Conclusion:
FOXP3 expression is associated positively with p16 expression, and is a favorable prognostic factor for survival in TSCC.
