Prognostic value of p53 protein expression and clinicopathological factorsin infiltrating ductal carcinoma of the breast. A study of 192 patients

The p53 gene is located on the short arm of chromosome 17. It encodes a 53- kd nuclear protein (p53) found in scant amounts in normal tissue. Mutations of the p53 gene have been reported in different human tumours. In breast c ancer, it has been noted that the overexpression of p53 protein in the nucl eus is an indicator of poor prognosis, although there is a high degree of v ariability, which may be due to different immunohistochemical techniques, v arying assessment of results and the type of monoclonal antibody used. This study is an immunohistochemical analysis of p53 expression in 192 case s of infiltrating ductal carcinoma of the breast, correlating it with clini copathological factors and the clinical course of the disease. Of all the breast-cancer tissue analysed, stains for p53 antibody were foun d in 87 tumours (45.3%). The results of multivariate analysis show that the independent predictors related to recurrence are tumour size, lymphnode me tastasis and p53, while those related to death are necrosis, lymph-node met astasis and p53. In summary, our series showed prognostic significance between the expressio n of p53 and shorter survival time and disease-free interval for all patien ts in general as well as those who presented lymph-node metastases at the t ime of diagnosis.