DISCORDANCE IN P53 MUTATIONS WHEN COMPARING ASCITES AND SOLID TUMORS FROM PATIENTS WITH SEROUS OVARIAN-CANCER

We performed a mutational analysis of the p53 gene in matched samples of solid tumors and ascites from patients with ovarian cancer using th e single-strand conformation polymorphism technique on exons 5-9 of th e p53 gene on fresh and cultured material, We observed a discordance i n the pattern of p53 mutations between the ascites and their solid tum or counterpart, In two cases, cancer cells from ascites carried a p53 mutation and the corresponding solid tumor cells retained the wild-typ e allele, while the opposite pattern was observed in two other patient s samples, These results suggest that ovarian tumor cells within the a scites may not simply represent cells shed from the ovarian solid tumo r and bear directly on gene therapy strategies in ovarian cancer.