Background: The basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSK). BCCmight develop because of the faulty cell cycle arrest. P15INK4b is a tumor suppressor gene, involved in cell cyclearrest and inactivated in most human cancers. The role of p15INK4b protein expression in the genesis of BCC is asyet unknown. In a previous study we showed the absence of p15INK4b expression in the majority of tissue microarraycores of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (SCCs), another type of non-melanoma skin cancer, indicating thatp15INK4b could possibly be involved in the pathogenesis of cutaneous SCC. The aim of this study was to investigatep15INK4b protein expression in BCCs. Materials and Method: Protein expression of p15INK4b in 35 cases of BCCtissue arrays and 19 cases of normal human skin tissue was studied using an immunohistochemical approach. Results: The expression of p15INK4b was not significantly different in the BCC cases as compared with normalhuman skin (p=0.356; p>0.05). In addition, there were no significant relationship between clinicopathologicvariables of patients (age and sex) and p15INK4b protein expression. Conclusions: Our finding may indicate thatp15INK4b protein expression does not play a role in the genesis of BCC.
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