ALTERATION OF P53 IN OVARIAN-CANCER - ITS OCCURRENCE AND MAINTENANCE IN TUMOR PROGRESSION

Fifty cancers, seven borderline tumors, and two adenomas of the ovary were immunohistochemically examined for alteration of p53 to clarify i ts clinical significance. Nuclear accumulation of p53 protein was dete cted in 60% of the cancers, but in none of the borderline tumors or ad enomas. No significant correlation was found between aberrant expressi on of p53 and clinical stage or histological type. DNA aneuploidy was significantly more common and the Ki-67 index was significantly higher in the cancers with altered p53 protein than in those without it. The re was a concordant expression level of p53 in primary and matched met astatic lesions in all twelve pairs of cancers examined. These finding s suggest that alteration of p53 protein is an event that occurs in th e development of cancer, but not of borderline tumors of the ovary, an d that it occurs before metastasis and remains unchanged thereafter.