Prognostic significance of p53 mutation in breast cancer: Frequent detection of non-missense mutations by yeast functional assay

p53 status was tested in 180 patients with primary breast cancer using a ye ast functional assay. Mutations were identified in 32% of cases, Only half were point missense mutations; the remainder were nonsense, insertion, dele tion and splice site mutations. Twenty-two percent of mutations were locate d outside exons 5-8, For a median follow-up of 88 months, survival analysis showed that p53 mutation conferred a worse prognosis in the whole populati on and the node-positive subgroup but not in node-negative patients. p53 st atus, tumour size >2 cm, axillary lymph node metastasis and high histologic al grade were major adverse risk factors in univariate analysis. Multivaria te analysis of 153 patients for whom full data were available showed that p 53 status contributed prognostic information when tumour size and lymph nod e status were taken into account but not when histological grade was includ ed. p53 status thus contributes only limited new prognostic information in breast cancer when established prognostic factors are taken into account. I nt. J. Cancer (Pred. Oncol.) 84:587-593, 1999. (C) 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.