Introduction & Objective: Basal cell carcinoma is the most common malignant tumor in humans. The role of ultraviolet radiation is well known in pathogenesis of BCC. More recently some immunohistochemical markers such as p53 gene and Ki-67 antigen are suggested in the pathogenesis. Some of the recent studies correlate these markers to recurrence or metastasis of the tumor. This study is done to investigate the prevalence and severity of expression of these two markers in various sub-types of BCC.

Materials & Methods: This is a cross-sectional study done on 100 cases of BCC. At first the specimens were fixed by formalin, and stained by hematoxylene-eosin. Histological type of the tumor was determined. Expression and intensity of p53 and Ki-67 was investigated immunohistochemically. Other data such as age, sex, anatomical site of the tumor were detected. Data were analyzed by SPSS 15.0.

Results: There were 62% male and 38% female in 100 cases of our study. Mean age of the cases was 63.97±14.36. Prevalence of expression of Ki-67 and p53 was 60% and 76%. The intensity of the Ki-67 was strong in 30% and weak in 70% of cases and for p53 that was 70% strong and 30% weak. P-value for correlation between these two markers and other variables such as anatomical site, pathological type, sex was greater than 0.05, except for the correlation between age and intensity of Ki-67(P=0.036).

Conclusion: The results of our study showed that the rates of expression of the markers were compatible with some other studies. However, our results didn't support the correlation between intensity of these markers in BCC specimens and the pathological type of the tumor or other variables.