Cyst or Tumor? A systematic review and meta-analysis on the expression of p53 marker in Odontogenic Keratocysts

The odontogenic keratocyst (OKC) is a potentially aggressive odontogenic lesion and there is an ongoing debate regarding its biological behavior and classification. The present systematic review aims to assess the expression of the p53 protein in the odontogenic keratocyst in comparison to the dentigerous cyst and ameloblastoma. We searched MEDLINE, Web of Science and Scopus for immunohistochemical studies reporting OKC's, dentigerous cysts and solid/multicystic ameloblastomas. The Risk Difference between the lesions expressing the p53 was the effect measure and a P value < 0.05 was considered to provide evidence to the effect estimates. Results: The first hit retrieved 126 records. After duplicates removal, there were 84 articles, of which eighteen were assessed for eligibility. Thirteen articles were included in the meta-analysis, showing that OKC's have an estimated difference of 23% (P < 0.003) in the probability to express the p53 over dentigerous cysts, and an estimated difference of 4% (P = 0.28) in the probability to express the p53 over ameloblastomas. OKCs seem to behave more similarly to a tumor rather than an odontogenic cyst regarding its p53 expression and the classification of this lesion into Keratocystic Odontogenic Tumor should be carefully revaluated.