FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH P53 NUCLEAR ACCUMULATION IN PROSTATIC ADENOCARCINOMA

Prostatic adenocarcinoma is an age-related cancer. The extremely high proportion of this disease with advanced age merits the study of age-d ependent carcinogenesis. TP53 is considered a common target for carcin ogenic agents including exogenous carcinogens as well as endogenous mu tagens. Mutations of this gene are reported to be the most frequent nu clear abnormalities in human cancer. In order to investigate the relat ionship between age and altered patterns of p53 expression, we have an alyzed a group of 48 patients with primary prostatic adenocarcinoma. W e assessed p53 nuclear accumulation immunohistochemically by the anti- p53 antibodies PAb1801 and CM-1, and identified 9 out of 48 patients ( 19%) displaying p53-positive phenotype. We observed a significant asso ciation between advanced age and p53 nuclear accumulation. The data su ggest that p53 nuclear accumulation may be related to the aging proces s in prostatic adenocarcinoma.