Abstract

Purpose Cervical cancer is an important health issue among women worldwide. Cervical smear and human papillomavirus detection are the most used screening methods to detect preneoplastic and neoplastic lesions. However, as neither can predict cervical development, new markers are needed for this disease. ZNF516, a potential tumor suppressor gene, has been found altered in cervical cancer. The objective of this study was to determine ZNF516 immunohistochemistry frequency in cervical biopsies and its association with clinicopathological parameters, to evaluate its potential as marker in cervical lesions. Methods A retrospective series of 452 formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) cervical biopsies, obtained between 2002 and 2007, were selected for immunohistochemistry of ZNF516, p16 and Ki-67 markers. Human papillomavirus genotyping was performed on 272 of these samples through reverse line blot assay. Results An inverse relation between ZNF516 expression and cervical lesions grade (P < 0.001) was observed, given this protein was found mainly expressed in normal tissues, while was decreased in cervical lesions. As expected, the proliferation markers p16 and Ki-67 were found highly expressed in cervical cancer compared to normal tissues, and inversely correlated to ZNF516 expression (P < 0.01). High oncogenic risk-Human papillomavirus presence also was related to the lack of ZNF516 expression in cervical lesions (P < 0.05), and the detection of these two parameters showed a high sensitivity (70.9%) for preneoplastic lesions detection.Conclusions The loss of ZNF516 expression was found in cervical lesions, and its detection potentially could be used as acomplementary marker of early diagnosis in cervical lesions.