Korean J Gastroenterol.  2000 May;35(5):629-637.

Clinical Significance of p53 Protein Expression and K-ras Point Mutation in Pancreatic Cancer and Chronic Pancreatitis

• Roe IH
• Nam SW
• Lee MI
• Hwang YJ
• Lee BS
• Park HJ
• Kim BH
• Kim JT
• Cho CH

Abstract

BACKGROUND/AIMS
The aims of this study were to evaluate the expression rate of p53 protein and K-ras mutation in pancreatic carcinogenesis, and to determine their clinical significance.
METHODS
Specimens were obtained from 26 pancreatitic ductal adenocarcinoma, 12 chronic pancreatitis, and 5 normal pancreas. For the specimens, overexpression of p53 protein was evaluated by immunohistochemical assay, and K-ras mutation was analyzed by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism.
RESULTS
Immunohistochemical staining for p53 protein was positive in 0% of normal ducts, 25% of chronic pancreatitis, and 61.5% of pancreatic carcinoma. K-ras mutation was positive in 0% of normal ducts, 16.7% of chronic pancreatitis, 76.9% of pancreatic carcinoma. There were no significant correlations between p53 immunoreactivity or K-ras mutation and age, gender, tumor size, histopathological grade, and stage of pancreatic cancer. However, the p53-positive pancreatic cancers showed significantly lower survival rate than a p53-negative tumors (p<0.05). There was no correlation between K-ras multation and survival rates.
CONCLUSIONS
The mutations of p53 tumor suppressor gene and K-ras might have important roles in the pancreatic carcinogenesis. The detection of p53 alterations might be useful in the prediction of the patient's prognosis. The genetic alterations of p53 and K-ras are likely to begin in the stage of chronic pancreatitis.

Keyword

Pancreatic cancer; Pancreatitis; p53; K-ras

MeSH Terms

Adenocarcinoma
Carcinogenesis
Genes, Tumor Suppressor
Pancreas
Pancreatic Neoplasms*
Pancreatitis
Pancreatitis, Chronic*
Point Mutation*
Prognosis
Survival Rate