TY - JOUR TI - BCL-2, p53 and HLA-DR antigen expression in surgically treated parotid cancer patients AU - Genetzakis, Michael AU - Gomatos, Ilias P. AU - Georgiou, Anastasia N. and AU - Giotakis, John AU - Manolopoulos, Leonidas AU - Papadimitriou, AU - Isonstantina AU - Chra, Helen AU - Leandros, Emmanuel AU - Tsigris, AU - Christos AU - Ferekidis, Eleutherios A. JO - European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology: Official Journal of the European Federation of Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Societies (EUFOS) PY - 2009 VL - 266 TODO - 3 SP - 417-424 PB - Springer-Verlag SN - 0937-4477, 1434-4726 TODO - 10.1007/s00405-008-0754-1 TODO - Bcl-2; HLA-DR; p53; Parotid cancer; Prognosis TODO - Our objective was to investigate the prognostic significance of bcl-2 protein, p53 protein and HLA-DR antigen expression in a group of surgically treated parotid cancer patients. We studied bcl-2, p53 and HLA-DR immunohistochemical expression in paraffin-embedded surgically removed tissue specimens derived from 26 patients with parotid cancer and 9 patients with Warthin parotid tumors operated between 2000 and 2006 at the Hippokration Hospital of Athens. The staining results were correlated with the patients’ clinicopathological characteristics and clinical outcome. Bcl-2 expression was associated with a significantly decreased survival in patients with advanced tumor stage (P = 0.04), high grade lesions (P = 0.02), or cervical node involvement (P = 0.03). Radiotherapy was associated with a significantly improved recurrence-free survival among patients with negative tumor staining for either bcl-2, or both HLA-DR and bcl-2 [HLA-DR(-)/Bcl-2(-)] (P = 0.04 for both comparisons). Classical clinicopathologic factors failed to show prognostic value both in the univariate and the multivariate analyses performed. Our results suggest that bcl-2 can be used to identify locally advanced or histologically aggressive tumors with a lower survival probability following the application of standard treatment modalities. Furthermore, bcl-2(+) patients should be considered for more aggressive adjuvant treatment protocols, since conventional radiotherapy often fails to decrease relapse rates in this setting of patients. ER -