ABNORMAL P53 EXPRESSION IN HUMAN LUNG-CANCER IS ASSOCIATED WITH HISTOLOGIC SUBTYPES AND PATIENT SMOKING HISTORY

Among the most common mutations in human lung cancer are those affecti ng the p53 gene. The expression of p53 in the nucleus is considered an immunohistochemical reflection of the nuclear accumulation of mutant p53 protein, which is coded by the p53 gene with missense mutation and has a prolonged half-life. In the present study, p53 expression detec ted by means of immunohistochemistry occurred frequently in human lung cancer and was associated with histologic subtypes. The alteration in the p53 gene was found to be a relatively early genetic event in the development and progression of lung cancer and to be maintained in the process of metastasis: abnormal p53 expression was found in both the early and late clinical stages, and identical p53 expression was detec ted consistently among primary and metastatic lesions from the same pa tients. Furthermore, an observed association between abnormal p53 expr ession and the patients' smoking history suggests that the p53 gene co uld be a common target of tobacco-associated carcinogenesis in lung ca ncer.