Lack of Increased P15INK4B Protein Expression in Basal Cell Carcinomas

Background: The basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSK). BCC might develop because of the faulty cell cycle arrest. P15(INK4b) is a tumor suppressor gene, involved in cell cycle arrest and inactivated in most human cancers. The role of p15(INK4b) protein expression in the genesis of BCC is as yet unknown. In a previous study we showed the absence of p15(INK4b) expression in the majority of tissue microarray cores of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (SCCs), another type of non-melanoma skin cancer, indicating that p15(INK4b) could possibly be involved in the pathogenesis of cutaneous SCC. The aim of this study was to investigate p15(INK4b) protein expression in BCCs. Materials and Method: Protein expression of p15(INK4b) in 35 cases of BCC tissue arrays and 19 cases of normal human skin tissue was studied using an immunohistochemical approach. Results: The expression of p15(INK4b) was not significantly different in the BCC cases as compared with normal human skin (p=0.356; p>0.05). In addition, there were no significant relationship between clinicopathologic variables of patients (age and sex) and p15(INK4b) protein expression. Conclusions: Our finding may indicate that p15(INK4b) protein expression does not play a role in the genesis of BCC.