Immunohistochemical Investigation of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Using Keratin, EMA, Laminin, Fibronectin, Collagen Type IV, Laminin Receptor, and Laminin/Collagen Receptor Antibodies

Immunohistochemical investigation was carried out to examine the characteristics of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) using 12 biopsy cases obtained from southern China. These cases were divided into three groups according to their predominant pattern associated with the cell and the tissue differentiation using the World Health Organi-zation (WHO) classification as follows: (i) 4 cases with squamous cell carcinoma, (ii) 4 cases with differentiated nonkeratinizing carcinoma, (iii) 4 cases with undifferentiated carcinoma. These three types of NPC cases were reacted with keratin and epithelial membrane antigen (EMA). All neoplastic tissues were stained with keratin stronger than EMA. Squamous cell carcinoma and differentiated non-keratinizing carcinoma cases were diffusely stained strongly positive by immunop-eroxidase for keratin. On the other hand, most of undifferentiated carcinoma cases were weakly or negatively reacted with keratin immunohistochemistry, and a part of tumor cytoplasms were staine