The Proportion of p16 Expression in Penile Squamous Cell Carcinoma Based on Immunohistochemistry Examination in the Balinese Population

Abstract

Background: : Penile cancer is a rare type of cancer in men and was the highest in Bali compared to other regions in Indonesia. Around 95% of malignancies in the penis are squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) type. One of the risk factors associated with penile squamous cell carcinoma is an infection caused by Human Papillomavirus (HPV). Human Papillomavirus E6 and E7 oncoproteins play a significant role in penile squamous cell carcinoma carcinogenesis. Overexpression of p16 protein can be used as a marker of HPV infection. This study aims to determine the expression of p16 protein in penile squamous cell carcinoma.Methods: This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of p16 protein expression was assessed by immunohistochemical examination from paraffin block tumors of penile cancer patients. Expression of p16 was observed to be positive when stained with a strong brown color in the nucleus and cytoplasm of tumor cells. The analysis method used in this study is a descriptive statistic to provide a general description of the characteristics of each research variable. The data were processed using SPSS to determine the frequency and median of the age of patients with penile squamous cell carcinoma and the prevalence of p16 protein expression in cell penile squamous cell carcinoma. The data shown in this study are the age range and prevalence of p16 protein expression in penile squamous cell carcinoma using the prevalence table.Results: This study used 142 penile squamous cell carcinoma samples derived from biopsy, partial, and total penectomy. The results of the IHC examination showed that the expression of p16 protein was positive in penile cancer tumor cells in 68 cases (47.9%), with the highest age distribution in the 50–59-year age group (28.2%).Conclusions: Further research is needed to confirm the correlation between HPV infection and p16 protein overexpression in penile squamous cell carcinoma, including HPV genotyping