THE PREVALENCE OF P53 IMMUNOREACTIVITY IN ANAL-CANAL CARCINOMA

We examined the relationship between p53 expression and clinicopatholo gic parameters in anal carcinoma. p53 immunoreactivity was detected in 14/18 (77.7%) tumors. Significant association was found between p53 e xpression and depth of invasion. There was no significant association between p53 expression and histologic type, lymph node metastasis, age and prognosis. Possibly the genetic pathway to anal carcinoma involvi ng p53 gene overexpression confer aggressive growth pattern, but it do es not result in worse prognosis. The absence of correlation between p 53 overexpression and prognosis could be explained by tumors negative for mutations having an excess of wild-type p53 protein.