VERY-LOW INCIDENCE OF P53 ANTIBODIES IN ADULT NON-HODGKINS-LYMPHOMA AND MULTIPLE-MYELOMA

In several types of solid tumours, circulating antibodies to p53 are s een in about a third of cases with a p53 mutation, but are absent in c ases without p53 mutation. Therefore detection of those antibodies has relatively low sensitivity but high specificity in the detection of p 53 mutations. We looked for circulating p53 antibodies by ELISA in 56 adult non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) and 80 multiple myeloma cases. A ce rtain or highly probable p53 mutation was found by SSCP analysis, immu nocyto- or immunohistochemistry in 8/35 (23%) NHL cases and 2/19 (10%) MM cases analysed by these techniques. None of the 80 MM cases and on ly one of the 56 cases of NHL had circulating p53 antibodies. The posi tive case had Burkitt's lymphoma and a p53 missense mutation al codon 273. Thus, very few MM and NHL patients with a p53 mutation develop p5 3 antibodies and this test does not appear to be useful in haematologi cal malignancies.