Objective: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the protein expression of p16 and p53 involved in the progression of oral dysplasia to oral cancer and to analyze the prognostic value of markers. Methods: 30 biopsy specimens paraffin embedded archives of UnicenP Histopathology Laboratory were analyzed. The p16 and p53 immunohistochemical staining was performed in all specimens. The cases were classified according to the histological malignancy grading system proposed by World Health Organization. For each case, a minimum of 1000 cells, from 5 microscopic fields of different serial slices at a 400× magnification, were examined. The average cell number was determined by counts of population density in all of the fields. Results: Height of p53 staining within the epithelium increased significantly between mild and moderate and between mild and severe dysplasia (Kruskall-Wallis analysis p = 0,01), with a trend toward increasing height between moderate and severe dysplasia. The percentage of cases with p16 staining decreased with increasing degree of dysplasia (Kruskall-Wallis analysis p = 0,01); however, no significant trend in staining height or proportion was observed with p16, p53 in relation to degree of dysplasia. Conclusion: The results of this study provided evidence that the expression of p53 is a later event on carcinogenesis, seen more frequently in cases of severe dysplasia and lack of p16 could be an other event to oral cancer progress

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