Evaluation of Telomerase (hTert), Ki67 and p16ink4a expressions in low and high-grade cervical intraepithelial lesions.

OBJECTIVE: to study the association between the histological grading of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN I, CIN II and CIN III) and the immunohistochemical expression for p16ink4a, hTert and Ki67, as well as to evaluate the relationship of these markers with the risk of recurrence after surgical treatment.

METHODS: we studied a historical cohort of 94 women with intraepithelial lesions CIN I (low grade), CIN II and CIN III (high grades) submitted to conization or electrosurgical excision of the transformation zone. We evaluated all surgical specimens for immunohistochemical expression of p16ink4a, hTert and Ki67.

RESULTS: the mean age was 38.2 years; p16ink4a was absent in most CIN I cases. In patients with CIN II or I/II (association of low and high-grade lesions), we observed p16ink4a ≤10%. In patients with CIN III, we found a higher expression frequency of p16ink4a >50%. In CIN I, the majority had Ki67≤10% and low frequency of Ki67>50%. In the CIN III category, there were fewer patients with Ki67≤10%, and Ki67 was absent in most patients of CIN II and III groups. There was no association between hTert expression and histologic grade. There were no statistically significant differences between the expression of the markers in patients with and without recurrence.

CONCLUSION: there was a statistically significant association of p16ink4a and Ki67 with histological grade. The markers' expression, as for disease recurrence, was not statistically significant in the period evaluated.