RESUMO
BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE: The study on the protein expression of c-myc and p16 in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) has been reported, and a few researches involved in their gene amplification and mRNA expression in OSCC, however, the synergism of c-myc and p16 in OSCC in multiple levels is still unclear. This study aims to probe the synergism of c-myc and p16 in OSCC in gene amplification, mRNA expression, and protein expression levels. METHODS: The gene amplification, expression of mRNA, and protein of c-myc and p16 in 30 cases of OSCC were determined by in situ hybridization and immunohistochemical techniques. RESULTS: The amplification rate of c-myc was 63.3%, but no amplification of p16 was found in OSCC. The mRNA expression rates of c-myc and p16 were 83.3% and 93.3%, and their protein expression rates were 60.0% and 86.7%, respectively. The correlation analysis showed that there was significant correlativity between p16 and c-myc both in mRNA expression (r=0.676 5, P=4.055 6E-05) and in protein expression (r=0.564 2, P=0.001 2). CONCLUSION: The gene amplification and overexpression of c-myc plays an important role in the tumorigenesis and development of OSCC. There is certain internal relationship between p16 and c-myc expression in OSCC.