A Survey on Association of P16 Protein and Uterine Cervical Dysplasia

Cervical (uterine) carcinoma is the second most frequent type of women cancer. Success in early diagnosis of this disease is due to the use of pap-smear test. However, this test has both false-positive and false-negative results. P16 protein is a Cyclin-dependent Kinase inhibitor supposed to be overexpressed in cervical dysplasia and cancer. Our study was about correlation between P16 and cervical dysplasia. In this study 45 patients with dysplastic abnormalities in cervix (including Ascus-H) were sampled for papsmear (by Liquid-base method). Two smears were stained, one with papanicolau and the other (by IHC) for P16. The results were compared using t-test via SPSS15 software. Pap-stain revealed 13 ASCUS (29%), 18 LSIL (40%), 11 HSIL (24%), and 3 S.C.C (7%). Immunostaining of P16 protein was observed in ASCUS (3/13, 23%), LSIL (12/18, 67%), HSIL (11/11, 100%), and S.C.C (3/3, 100%). P16 had significant correlation with degree of cervical dysplasia in Liquid-base pap-smear (P < 0.0001). We suggest the usage of P16-test as an optional test for cervical dysplasia according to our study.