Abstract: To determine the association between the components of Rb pathway and clinical outcome and prognosis of oropharyngeal carcinoma. Methods： Fluorescent immunohistochemistry for pRb, p16 and cyclin D1 was carried out on a tissue microarray of 95 oropharyngeal cancer cases with longterm patient followup data. For evaluation of protein expression, an automated insitu quantitative measurement of protein analysis (AQUA) was used. Results： Protein levels of pRb and cyclin D1 were significantly associated with local recurrence, diseasefree survival and overall survival. In multivariate Cox regression, high nuclear cyclin D1 and high nuclear Rb expression were proved to be independent predictor for local recurrence, diseasefree survival and overall survival at 5 years. Conclusion： Our results indicate that the Rb pathway plays a vitally important role for the clinical outcome in oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma. Thus, the components of Rb pathway may be potential targets for molecular intervention in patients with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma

Key words: Cell cycle, Head and neck neoplasms, Quantitative analysis, Proteomics