Immunohistochemical detection of p53 protein in HPV positive oral lesions

Oral cancer provides a unique model system for the study of the multistep nature of cancer. The influence of viruses and tumor suppressor gene inactivation are of major importance in this HPVs are small oncogenic viruses which are implicated in epithelial carcinogenesis, and p53 is a tumor suppressor gene with a central role in the prevention of genomic injury. p53 protein detection is usually a synonym for p53 mutation. This study was designed to determine the immunohistochemical detection of p53 protein in HPV positive oral squamous cell carcinomas and hyperplastic oral lesions. p53 was detected in 50% (5/10) of HPV positive hyperplastic oral lesions and in 59.41% (22/39) of oral squamous cell carcinomas. These results indicate that HPV and p53 protein alterations frequently coexist in the lesions of our study and suggest that p53 mutation may be an early genetic event in oral carcinogenesis. Moreover, this coexistance reveals that other environmental carcinogens have a more prominent role in oral carcinogenesis, one that overrides the action of HPV.