Skeptical Significance of p53 Protein Expression Derived Using Immunohistochemical Staining in Invasive Cervical Carcinomas

Kim, T C; Chi, J S; Kim, D H; Pai, D H; Park, E S

Abstract

This research was performed to find out if the overexpression of p53 is robust enough to prove its effectiveness as a prognostic factor in invasive cervical carcinomas. A comparative analysis was made of the correlation between prognostic factors of invasive cervical carcinomas such as clinical stage, histologic type, and lymph node metastasis and the values of p53 overexpression attained from paraffin-wax embedded blocks of invasive cervical carcinomas using mmunohistochemical staining. 55 patients aged from 24 to 74 with invasive cervical carcinoma were thoroughly investigated. The overall rate of p53 overexpression was 30.9% (17/55). The rates from each specified age group were: [24 40, 19.1% (4/21)], [41 50, 35.3% (6/17)], [51 60, 40.0% (4/10)], and [60 74, 42.9% (3/7)]. Age group comparison showed that differences in p53 overexpression were of no significance (p>0.05). The rates from each clinical stage were: [stage I , 12% (3/25)], [stageII, 50% (8/16)], [stageIII, 50% (2/4)], and[stageIV, 40% (4/10)]. The overexpression rate seemed to get progressively higher, but not statistically significant (p>0.05). The rates from different histologic types were: 32.7% (16/49) in squamous cell carcinomas and 16.7% (1/6) in adenocarcinomas. Relatively higher rate of p53 overexpression was seen in the patient group with squamous cell carcinomas. The difference, however, was not statistically significant (p>0.05). Out of 55 invasive cervical carcinoma cases, we observed p53 overexpression in 42.9% (3/7) of patient group with lymph node metastasis and in 29.2% (14/48) of patient group without it. No statistically significant difference was found between the two (p>0.05). This research shows that p53 overexpression is not significantly correlated with age and such prognostic factors as clinical stage, histologic type and lymph node metastasis. The effectiveness of p53 overexpression as a prognostic factor seems doubtful. More rigorous research is demanded for the complete proof or disproof of its effectiveness.