Molecular analyses of Head and Neck cancer and melanoma

TP53 sequencing of 126 pairs of initial and recurrent head and neck squamous cell carcinoma tumor cases was performed. Approximately one-third of the recurrent cases showed TP53 status different from that of the initial tumor. Survival after recurrence was associated with the TP53 status of the recurrent tumors, which was prognostically useful (Figure 3).

 The effect of pathological features on radiation prognosis for nasopharyngeal carcinoma was investigated. The prognosis of keratinizing SCC was worse than that of nonkeratinizing SCC, suggesting biological differences. Overexpression of EpCAM was also shown to be a prognostic factor for nonkeratotic SCC.

Figure 3  Function of TP53 gene mutation in squamous cell carcinoma of head and neck and its relation to cancer progression and treatment.