The Prevalence of p16 Expression in Urothelial Bladder Cancer in a Tertiary Care Hospital of Chattogram, Bangladesh

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE: p16 is a tumor suppressor gene, loss of which is usually associated with poor epithelial differentiation, resulting in tumor progression, which correlates with aggressive clinical behavior and poor prognosis. CDK 4/6 inhibitors can be used as a therapeutic target in p16 negative cases. Bladder cancer is one of the most prevalent cancers, prognosis of which depends not only upon the histopathological type, grade, and invasiveness but also on many other factors. The purpose of this study was to examine p16 expression in bladder urothelial carcinoma among the people who receive treatment at a tertiary care facility in Chattogram, Bangladesh. METHODS: At the Department of Pathology, Chittagong Medical College we did this cross-sectional study from July 2019 to September 2021. The study included fifty-one cases of primary urothelial bladder cancer for histopathological examinations. Immunostaining was done by using a primary antibody against p16. RESULTS: Among the 51 cases, twenty-six cases (51%) showed positive p16 expression. The proportion of patients with high-grade (66.7%) and muscle-invasive (86.4%) tumors were more prone to show p16 negativity. CONCLUSION: The result of this study shows the high grade and muscle-invasive urothelial bladder cancer is linked to reduction of p16 expression, which may provide additional prognostic information to stratify the high-risk patients and can also guide treatment plans, being a therapeutic target.