P63 expression in eyelid squamous cell carcinoma

Luo et al report on expression of P63 in 85 patients with periocular and eyelid squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), and observe a correlation with a more advanced T stage and worse disease-specific survival.1 P63 has been previously reported to correlate with poor prognosis in cutaneous and head and neck SCC patients.2 3 The authors also report on Ki67 index in the same cohort of patients with periocular and eyelid SCC; Ki67 is a proliferation index and a higher Ki67 index is generally correlated with a higher mitotic rate and thus an expected worse prognosis across various tumours.4 The authors found expression of P63 in approximately one-third of the eyelid and periocular SCC cases and expression of this marker was correlated specifically with occurrence of perineural invasion, more advanced T stage, higher risk of nodal and distant metastasis and death from disease.