DETECTION OF P53 AUTOANTIBODIES IN SERA OF GASTRIC-CANCER PATIENTS AND THEIR PROGNOSTIC RELEVANCE

Background: Changes in the p53 gene product can be immunogenic and ena ble the formation of p53 serum antibodies (p53ab), detectable in patie nts with different cancer types. So far, there have been no reports de scribing the detectability of p53ab in gastric cancer patients. Method s: We investigated the presence of p53ab and their clinical relevance in a cohort of 74 gastric cancer patients, using an enzyme-linked immu nosorbent assay system. Results: In our investigation 20.3% of all pat ients (15 of 74) and 46.9% of the patients with immunohistochemically (IHC) p53-positive tumors (15 of 32) showed detectable p53ab in serum. All p53ab-positive patients had IHC p53-positive tumors. We have foun d a significant correlation of p53ab with a higher tumor stage (P = 0. 002) and also with a poor prognosis of survival (P = 0.04). Conclusion : We have shown that in gastric cancer patients p53ab are also detecta ble and that p53ab positivity is a predictor of an unfavorable prognos is.