Survey of p16INK4a immunohistochemistry in diagnosis of dysplastic changes in cervix

Abstract

Introduction: Cervical cancer is the third most common cancer and the second most frequent cause of mortality from malignancies of genital organs in women, which can be prevented by diagnosis of pre-neoplastic changes in cervix. This study aimed to evaluate the p16INK4a biomarker in different grades of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) using immunohistochemistry (IHC) method. Methods: The present cross-sectional study was carried out on the paraffin-embedded blocks of cervical tissue of 100 women with previous histopathological diagnosis of CIN referred to Al-Zahra Hospital, Tabriz, Iran, during 2015-2016. The samples were divided into 4 groups, 31 with normal cervical finding, 30 with low-grade CIN (CIN I), and 39 with high-grade CIN (16 CIN II and 23 CIN III). p16INK4a was investigated on the samples using IHC technique. Data was analyzed by SPSS using chi-square and Mann-Whitney U tests. Results: Thirteen out of 30 (43%), 12 out of 16 (75%) and 23 out of 23 (100%) of the CIN I, CIN II, CIN III were positive for p16INK4a, respectively. None of the normal samples were positive for p16INK4a. Sensitivity of p16INK4a for detection of CIN I, CIN II, CIN III was calculated as 63%, 80% and 100%, respectively. The overall sensitivity of the biomarker for detection of CIN lesions was 76.6% and the specificity was 100% for all CIN grades.Conclusion: The p16INK4A biomarker is a suitable diagnostic tool for high-grade CIN, yet for low-grade ones it has lower sensitivity. p16INK4a can be a helpful tool beside histopathology for diagnosis of CIN lesions.

Keywords

• p16INK4A
• Dysplasia
• Neoplasia
• Cancer
• Cervix