抄録
Human papilloma virus (HPV) has been identified in the upper aerodigestive tract tissue, giving a clue to the etiology of tumorigenesis. Moreover, HPV-16, 18 and 33 have the ability to transform cells and HPV-16 and 18 especially, are closely associated with head and neck cancers. p 53 tumor suppressor gene is known to be inhibited by binding with HPV-E6 protein. The number of young patients with tongue cancer has been increased. In this study we investigated the association of HPV with p 53 expression in tongue cancer patients. The patients were divided into two groups (group 1: less than 40 years old, group 2 : more than 70 years old). HPV-DNA was detected in one of 12 patients in group 1, and in none of the 12 patients in group 2 by in situ hybridization. Overexpression of p 53 in group 1(7112) was significantly higher than that in group 2 (2112). Our data suggests that HPV might be one of factors in the transformation of tongue cancr. To eliminate this possibility, however, it is necessary to carry out other methods of molecular biological investigation (e. g. PCR or in situ PCR) in a much larger number of cases.
