Objective: To investigate the expression of tumor suppressor gene PTEN in nasopharyngeal carcinomas and the relationship between PTEN and the progression of nasopharyngeal cancer.
Method: The SABC immunohistochemistry method was employed to detect the expression of PTEN in paraffin-embedded nasopharyngeal carcinoma tissues. The relationship between the geneexpression and clinicopathological features was analyzed.
Result: Loss of PTEN expression in normal cases (13.3%) was lower than that in nasopharyngeal carcinoma cases (47.8%). Of nasopharyngeal cancer cases, loss of PTEN expression in squama cell nasopharyngeal (58.1%) was higher than that in others tissue type (30.8%); loss of PTEN expression in squama cell nasopharyngeal had correlation with pathological stage, which increased gradually from poorly differentiated to well differentiated squama cell nasopharyngeal; loss of PTEN expression of clinical III-IV stage (78.1%) was higher than that of clinical I-II stage (21.6%).
Conclusion: It is presumed that PTEN gene deletion may be involved in carcinogenesis and progression of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, and relates to the tissue type, the pathological grade and clinical stage.