Clinical Significance of p53 Overexpression in the Bile Duct Cancer

Kim, Ki Hwan; Kim, Sun Whe; Kim, Woo Ho; Park, Yong Hyun

Abstract

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Mutation of p53 gene removes its antiproliferative capacity. Mutant p53 protein is more stable than wild-type protein, and immunohistochemically detectable in tumor cells. This study was performed in order to evaluate the clinical significance of p53 overexpression in the bile duct cancer.
METHODS
One hundred and thirteen cases of bile duct cancer from 1985 to 1995 were reviewed for the clinicopathologic characteristics, and their formalin-fixed tumor tissue samples were immunostained for p53 by avidin-biotin complex method.
RESULTS
Fifty-two cases (46.0%) had tumor cells with p53 protein overexpression. Overexpression rates of p53 were not different in relation to clinico-pathologic characteristics including age, sex, extent of disease, lymph node metastasis, histologic type, gross type, location of tumor and AJCC TNM stage. Eighty-three patients who underwent curative resection were analysed for survival time according to the clinico-pathologic characteristics and p53 overexpression. There was no difference in overall survival time between the the patients with p53 overexpression (n=40) and the patients without p53 overexpression (n=43). Moreover, there was no difference in prognosis according to clinico-pathologic characteristics between the patients with p53 overexpression and the patients without p53 overexpression.
CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that p53 overexpression was not correlated with various clinico-pathologic characteristics and the prognosis of the patients with extrahepatic bile duct cancer.