bcl-2 vs p53 protein expression and apoptotic rate in human nonmelanoma skin cancers

Analysis of p53 and BAX mutations, loss of heterozygosity, p53 and BCL2 expression and apoptosis in basal cell carcinoma in Korean patients

“…As most of the tumours in this study occurred on sun‐exposed skin, reduced expression of BCL2 is plausible. In a previous study, a statistically significant negative correlation was found between p53 and BCL2 immunostaining in the BCCs, which indicated that a disturbance in either p53 or BCL2 suffices to enhance skin tumour formation by suppressing apoptosis 28 . Our study also showed, on the whole, a mutually exclusive pattern of p53 and BCL2 immunostaining and supports the hypothesis.…”

“…Differences may reflect the aetiology of the tumours studied or, possibly, differences in fixation and section preparation techniques 27 . In our study, 27% of the BCC were positive, similar to the 29% reported by Wikonkal et al 28 . With respect to BCC, the frequency of positivity is higher with immunostaining than with sequencing 6 .…”

“…In our series, a majority of the p53‐positive foci were too deep‐seated to be interpreted as the results of transient UVB‐induced overexpression, and there was no gradient from the surface to the base of a tumour expected after UVB exposure. As previously reported, 28 these observations would seem to imply other (endogenous) causes of p53 overexpression, which most likely signifies a dysfunctional signalling for apoptosis.…”

Efficacy of imiquimod for the expression of Bcl-2, Ki67, p53 and basal cell carcinoma apoptosis

“…The BCC apoptotic index prior to treatment was 0·5%, which is a similar result to those seen in the studies carried out by other authors with the TUNEL technique 30 . During the treatment, there was a significant increase of the apoptotic index in the imiquimod (all), imiquimod three times weekly and imiquimod five times weekly groups but not in the excipient group.…”

bcl‐2 protein expression in aggressive and non‐aggressive basal cell carcinomas

“…In BCCs, heterogeneity of staining has been alluded to in terms of quantity and quality of p53, MIB-1 and bcl-2 staining. 17,18,20,34 In the present study, quantitative heterogeneity of staining in aggressive and non-aggressive tumours appeared to be largely a function of mixed histological patterns.…”