P53 and Ki67 expression profile of cervical carcinoma: a review of 149 Nigerian cases

Abstract

Introduction Cervical cancer is a leading cause of cancer mortality in Nigerian women. The mortality rate is known to be higher in cervical carcinoma with poor prognostic indices and these have been well correlated with p53 overexpression as well as a high proliferative index, measured by Ki67 expression. Method Immunohistochemistry was performed for p53 and Ki67 expression profile of cases of cervical carcinoma seen in the department of Morbid Anatomy and Forensic Medicine, OAUTHC, Ile-Ife, Nigeria over a 20-year period. Results There were a total of 320 cases of cervical carcinoma within the period under review. Of these, the large cell non-keratinizing variant was the most common and it constituted about 50.3% of cases, while keratinizing, adenocarcinoma, adenosqua-mous, small cell non-keratinizing, clear cell, verrucous and basa-loid variants constituted 32.2%, 6.3%, 3.4%, 3.4%, 2.2%, 1.9% and 0.3%, respectively. Immunohistochemistry was performed on only 149 cases where the tissue blocks were available. About 59.7% showed significant proliferative activity as evidenced by their Ki67 expression profile. About 61.0% of cases showed significant P53 overexpression. Conclusion There is a high expression profile of p53 and Ki67 by cervical carcinoma in our environment. This may partly explain the high mortality rate associated with this tumour.