Mutations in zinc-binding domains of p53 as a prognostic marker of esophageal-cancer patients

Some investigators have suggested that mutations of the p53 gene may be mol ecular markers for poor prognosis of cancer patients, although others have reported conflicting results. We examined esophageal cancers from 138 patie nts to investigate whether mutational status of p53 could be correlated eit her with prognosis or with response to chemotherapy or radiation. We detect ed p53 mutations in the tumors of 78 (56.5%) patients, Kaplan-Meier analysi s showed that these 78 patients tended to have shorter survival times and g reater resistance to either form of therapy than patients whose tumors carr ied two wild-type p53 alleles, The difference became more evident when we f ocused on mutations in zinc-binding domains of p53 (L2 and L3); the prognos is was significantly poorer among the 29 patients with tumors in this categ ory than among patients whose tumors had no p53 mutations, or p53 mutations outside L2 or L3 (P = 0,0060). Moreover, those tumors as a group were more resistant to chemotherapy or radiation than the others (P = 0,0105), Our r esults underscore the importance of the zinc-binding domains of p53 with re spect to clinical prognosis for patients with esophageal carcinomas.