MICROVESSEL DENSITY, P53 OVEREXPRESSION, AND APOPTOSIS IN INVASIVE BREAST-CARCINOMA

Aims-To investigate the possibility of a correlation among microvessel density, p53 overexpression, and apoptosis in invasive breast carcino ma. Methods-Microvessel density was analysed in 105 cases of invasive breast carcinoma by immunohistology using antifactor VIII related anti body The results were correlated with the immunohistochemical expressi on of p53 and the apoptotic index, detected using the in situ end labe lling of fragmented DNA method (TUNEL). Assessment was made with a CAS 200 image analyser. All these studies were performed on formalin fixe d, paraffin wax embedded tissue sections of tumour samples. Results-Th e mean (SD) microvessel count was 47.2 (51.1), with a range from 7 to 250. Thirty five (33%) carcinomas showed overexpression of p53 protein . The apoptotic index of tumours ranged from 0.0 to 28.0, with a mean (SD) of 1.7 (3.2). The results showed that there was a significant inv erse correlation between microvessel density and p53 expression (p = 0 .04; odds ratio, 0.37). In contrast, no correlation was identified bet ween the microvessel density and apoptotic index. Conclusions-These re sults suggest that in invasive breast carcinoma the p53 overexpression phenotype downregulates tumour neoangiogenesis, as does the wildtype of p53 protein. In addition, they suggest that apoptosis and neoangiog enesis in these tumours are independent processes.