p53 Expression in two cases of spiradenocarcinomas

p53 protein is a nuclear 53-kDa phosphoprotein that acts as a suppressor pr otein. There are several studies on the expression of p53 in skin tumors, b ut few deal with adnexal malignant tumors because of their rarity. We perfo rmed immunohistochemistry for the detection of p53 and Ki-67 in two cases o f malignant spiradenomas and six cases of spiradenomas retrieved from our f iles. In our cases, p53 was expressed only in the malignant areas of the le sions, where-as the benign areas of the spiradenocarcinomas and all the spi radenomas were negative (nuclear positivity <10%). These results seem to su pport the idea that p53 is implicated in the malignant transformation of ad nexal tumors.