QUANTITATIVE IMMUNOCYTOCHEMICAL ASSAYS ON FROZEN-SECTIONS OF P53 - CORRELATION TO THE FOLLOW-UP OF PATIENTS WITH BREAST CARCINOMAS

A series of 222 turner samples stored at -80 degrees C in the authors' tumor library were investigated with anti-p53 (PA 1801)and streptavid in-biotin-peroxidase complex. The p53 immunoprecipitates were quantifi ed by densitometry assessed by image analysis of digitized microscopic images. Two parameters, percentage of positive surface and mean optic al densities, were compared with the patient's outcome (follow-up = 96 .8 months) (life table method, Mantel Cos test, BMDP statistical softw are). The p53 expression significantly correlated with a poor overall survival (P = .0063), metastasis-free survival (P = .024), and recurre nce-free survival (P = .022) at a 20% cutoff point of positive immunor eactive tumor surface. A strong prognostic significance,vas observed i n the node-positive subset of patients but not in the node-negative su bset, except for recurrence-free survival (P = .047). The results indi cate the clinical relevance of p53 evaluated by quantitative immunocyt ochemistry.