Abstract:

 Objective To examine the clinical significance of P16，CD4 and CD8 in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Methods Clinical history and immunohistochemical expression of P16，CD4 and CD8 were investigated in 133 patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Results Negative expression rates were 75.9% for P16，75.2% for CD4 and 76.7% for CD8；the corresponding positive expression rates were 24.1%，24.8% and 23.3%. Expression of P16 positively correlated with that of CD4（P<0.05）. Expression of P16，CD4 or CD8 did not differ significantly with gender，age，nationality，smoking history，family history of cancer or clinical stage. Nevertheless，trends were observed for gender-dependent expression of P16（P=0.069） and clinical stage-dependent expression of CD8（P=0.085）. Patients negative or positive for expression of P16，CD4，or CD8 did not differ significantly in 5-year overall survival rate（P>0.05）. However，CD4 positivity was associated with significantly higher rates of 5-year disease-free survival（P=0.002） and 5-year local recurrence-free survival（P=0.024） than CD4 negativity. Conclusion  P16，CD4 and CD8 expression is associated with the clinical characteristics of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. CD4-positive patients may have better prognosis. Joint detection of P16，CD4 and CD8 expression in nasopharyngeal carcinoma may help guide classification，treatment and prognosis prediction of patients.

Key words: Nasopharyngeal neoplasm, P16, CD4, CD8, Clinical pathology, Prognosis