Assessment of the prognostic relevance of serum anti-p53 antibodies in epithelial ovarian cancer

The objective of this study was to assess the prognostic relevance of preop erative serum anti-p53 antibodies in epithelial ovarian cancer. These autoa ntibodies were detected with a new generation enzyme-linked immunosorbent a ssay in blood samples preoperatively drawn from 86 patients with this malig nancy. Serum anti-p53 antibodies were found in 3 (10.0%) of the 30 patients with stage I-II and 15 (26.8%) of the 56 patients with stage III-IV epithe lial ovarian cancer (P = 0.09). We assessed in detail 44 patients with stag e III-IV disease who underwent six cycles of first-line platinum-based chem otherapy. A pathological complete response at second-look was achieved by n one of the 15 patients with serum anti-p53 antibodies compared to 24.1% of the 29 patients without autoantibodies (P = 0.09). However, the preoperativ e serum anti-p53 antibody status had no prognostic relevance for progressio n-free survival and survival. In conclusion, the assessment of preoperative serum anti-p53 antibodies seems to have a limited clinical value in the ma nagement of patients with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer. (C) 1999 Acad emic Press.