Author(s)

Beyhan Varol Mollamehmetoglu^1*, Havva Erdem², Muzaffer Keles³

¹Department of Pathology, Kanuni Training and Research Hospital, Trabzon, Turkey.
²Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Ordu University, Ordu, Turkey.
³Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Ataturk University, Erzurum, Turkey.

Objective: We aimed to retrospectively examine a series of premalignant and malignant cervical tissues to study a high-risk HPV 16 infection that, among cervical tissue lesions, carries the greatest risk of conversion to cancer, and the presence of p53 protein immunoreactivity, a tumor suppressor gene product. Methods: Paraffin blocks were studied via immunohistochemical (IHC) method to explore the presence of HPV 16 in 59 premalignant and malignant cervical lesions as well as immunoreactivity of the p53 oncoprotein, the most common cellular tumor suppressor gene product in human cancers. Results: In our series, mutant p53 positivity rate was 35.3% for low-grade CIL, 40% for high-grade CIL, and 46.8% for invasive carcinoma cases. Immune staining for high-risk HPV 16 type yielded a positive staining rate of 47% in low-grade CIL, 80% in high-grade CIL, and 50% in invasive carcinoma. Conclusion: The results of our study indicate a progressive increase in p53 oncoprotein reactivity from cervical intraepithelial neoplasia to invasive carcinoma. This suggests the clinical importance of p53 immunoreactivity in dysplastic progression and neoplastic transformation. HPV is the most commonly encountered oncogenic type in cervical lesions, especially in high-grade CIL and invasive carcinomas. Results of the previous reports suggest that HPV-positive carcinomas release wild type p53 and HPV-negative ones release mutant type p53 were not confirmed by our results, which indicated a mutant type p53 reactivity in HPV- 16 positive carcinoma cases.

Cervical Intraepithelial Lesion, Cervix Carcinoma, HPV 16, p53, Immunohistochemistry

Mollamehmetoglu, B. , Erdem, H. and Keles, M. (2016) The Relationship between p53 Expression and Human Papillomavirus in Premalignant and Malignant Uterine Cervical Lesions. Open Journal of Pathology, 6, 73-78. doi: 10.4236/ojpathology.2016.62009.