Clinical implications of serum anti-p53 antibodies for patients with gastric carcinoma

BACKGROUND. Mutations of p53 can lead to the production of anti-p53 antibod ies in sera of cancer patients. Before this study, the value of preoperativ e serum anti-p53 antibodies in determining the prognoses of patients with g astric carcinoma had yet to be determined. METHODS. The authors used a highly specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent ass ay (ELISA) kit (Pharma Cell, France) to determine the preoperative presence of serum anti-p53 antibodies in 120 patients with gastric carcinoma. The r elation between the positivity of serum anti-p53 antibodies and p53 abnorma l staining of gastric carcinoma tissues was examined. Clinicopathologic cha racteristics and prognoses of these patients were given attention. RESULTS. Anti-p53 antibodies were detected in 19.2%(23 of 120) of these pat ients with gastric carcinoma Among those who were positive for anti-p53 ant ibodies, female patients were predominant, the depth of invasion was greate r, and liver metastasis was present, as compared with those who were negati ve for anti-p53 antibodies. Regarding other factors, there were no differen ces between those who were positive or negative for anti-p53 antibodies. Ga stric carcinoma tissues had a 60.9%(14 of 23) positivity rate of p53 staini ng with anti-p53 antibodies and a 33.0%(32 of 97) negativity rate, and this difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). The survival time of patients with anti-p53 antibodies in their sera was shorter than that of su bjects with sera negative for anti-p53 antibodies (P < 0.05). The presence of anti-p53 antibodies was not an independent prognostic factor in multivar iate analysis. CONCLUSIONS. Serum assay of anti-p53 antibodies is a rapid and readily faci litated test for predicting tumor advancement, depth of invasion, and liver metastasis, and it will show it poorer prognosis for surgically treated pa tients with gastric carcinoma. (C) 1999 American Cancer Society.