Cancer Res Treat.  2006 Dec;38(4):218-223.

Prognostic Significance of Immunohistochemical Expression of p53 Gene Product in Operable Breast Cancer

• Song HS
• Do YR
• Kang SH
• Jeong KY
• Kim YS

Abstract

PURPOSE
The aim of this study was to investigate the prognostic significance of the expression of p53 gene product in operable invasive breast cancer by performing immunohistochemical analysis.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Between January 1993 and December 2001, 440 operable invasive breast cancer patients underwent immunohistochemical staining for p53, and we retrospectively analyzed these results together with the clinical outcomes.
RESULTS
The overexpression of p53 was detected in 51.6% of the cases. The overexpression of p53 was inversely correlated with lymph node metastasis (p=0.005). The tumor size, tumor histology, histologic grade, hormonal receptor status and tumor stage were not related to the overexpression of p53. Multivariate Cox regression analysis indicate that lymph node metastasis, tumor size and the p53 expression were the significant prognostic factors for overall survival; lymph node metastasis, the estrogen receptor status and the p53 expression were the significant prognostic factors for relapse free survival. On the subgroup analysis, the p53 non-expressors showed better 7-year overall survival (92.7% vs. 76.7%, respectively, p=0.011) and relapse free survival (74.9% vs. 57.8%, respectively, p=0.032) than did the p53 overexpressors for the patients with lymph node metastasis. However, for the patients without lymph node metastasis, the survival rates were not different for both the p53 non-expressors and the p53 overexpressors.
CONCLUSION
Immunohistochemical staining of the p53 gene product was an independent prognostic factor for predicting survival of the lymph node positive invasive breast cancer patients.

Keyword

Breast neoplasms; Prognosis; p53; Immunohistochemistry

MeSH Terms

Breast Neoplasms*
Breast*
Estrogens
Genes, p53*
Humans
Immunohistochemistry
Lymph Nodes
Neoplasm Metastasis
Prognosis
Recurrence
Retrospective Studies
Survival Rate
Estrogens

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Kaplan-Meier overall survival curve in operable breast cancer patients according to p53 expression.

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  Fig. 2 Kaplan-Meier overall survival curve in operable lymph node-negative and lymph node-positive breast cancer patients according to p53 expression.

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