Correlation Between Tumor Suppressor Protein P16INK4A and Transcription Factor BRN3A as Biological Markers for Neoplasia in the Uterine Cervix

Abstract

The results showed that the staining on the corresponding CIN 3 lesions showed diffuse and continuous staining in the whole thickness of the epithelium. The positivity was moderate in 42/49 cases and weak in 7/49. The staining was granular and mostly cytoplasmic in contrast to p16INK4a, which is found both in the nucleus and cytoplasm.Interestingly, we found that BRN3A was positive also in normal epithelium adjacent to the CIN3 lesion, confirming the results from the research group in England. The staining was mostly weak though, except from the basal layer which displayed strong positivity in 53 % of the cases and moderate positivity in 35 %. This is in contrast to the CIN 3 lesion, which displayed the same positivity throughout the epithelium. p16INK4aimmunostaining is already in use in in many pathology laboratories for differentiating between low and high risk precursors. No test is 100 % sensitive and adding more markers could be valuable in the future Cervical Cancer Screening programme. BRN3A is a promising marker in this context, making it possible to select HPV-positive women with increased risk of developing precursors to cancer. Further research is necessary to evaluate the clinical sensitivity of BRN3A.