P53 alterations have no prognostic or predictive significance in Dukes' C rectal carcinomas

We investigated the prognostic significance of p53 alterations in a consecu tive series of 122 Dukes' C rectal carcinomas with a median patient follow- up period of 56 months. One third of patients were treated with postoperati ve adjuvant chemotherapy. Overexpression of p53 protein was observed in 42% (50/118) of cases using immunohistochemical analysis and mutation of the p 53 gene in 38% (47/122) using single strand conformation polymorphism techn ique. Neither p53 overexpression nor mutation were associated with signific antly worse patient survival in the overall group or in the subgroup of 35 patients who received standard post-operative chemotherapy with 5-fluoroura cil and levamisole. Our results do not support the use of p53 alteration as a clinically useful prognostic marker for the overall survival of rectal c ancer patients or for predicting their response to chemotherapy.