MUTANT P53 PROTEIN AS A PREDICTOR OF SURVIVAL IN ENDOMETRIAL CARCINOMA

The expression of mutated p53 protein was studied in paraffin-embedded , formalin-fixed tumour specimens from 183 women with endometrial carc inoma. Fifty-five per cent of the specimens were negative, whereas the staining intensity was weak, moderate or strong in 15, 2 and 28% of c ases, respectively. Strong p53 expression (> 75% of the cells stained) was more common in uterine papillary serous cancers and clear cell ca ncers than in other tumour subtypes (P < 0.001), as well as in poorly differentiated tumours (P < 0.01) and in tumours with nuclear grade 3 (P < 0.0001). Strong p53 expression was also more frequently found in aneuploid tumours (P < 0.0001) and in tumours with a high S-phase frac tion (P < 0.001). Strong p53 expression was highly predictive of poor survival in the univariate analysis (P = 0.006) and in the Cox multiva riate analysis which included age, stage and grade. However, it lost m ost of its impact when the strongly prognostic nuclear grade and ploid y were added to the multivariate models. (C) 1996 Published by Elsevie r Science Ltd