Prevalence and clinical relevance of serum Anti-pB3 antibodies in patientswith cholangiocarcinoma

Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) constitutes carcinoma of the bile duct found at a high prevalence in northeastern Thailand. In the present study, we examined the sera of altogether 82 Thai CCA patients for the presence of anti-p53 a ntibodies in order to investigate a role of the tumor suppressor gene, p53 in the carcinogenesis. Our results revealed anti-p53 antibodies in 7.3% of the cases tested, which conforms to the prevalence rate of p53 gene mutatio n recently reported at 5% among Thai patients. With limited number of the p atients, anti-p53 antibodies were rapidly detected more frequently among pa tients with peripheral tumors than those with central tumors. However, furt her studies is required to establish significance and prognostic value of t he antibodies in the context of CCA.