Serum anti-p53 antibodies in uterine and ovarian cancer: Association with DNA sequence copy number abnormalities

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the clinical significance of t he serum anti-p53 antibody in patients with uterine and ovarian cancer. Som e of the ovarian patients were also evaluated for overexpression of p53 by immunohistochemistry and for cytogenetic alterations by comparative genomic hybridization (CGH), Serum anti-p53 antibodies were determined by an enzym e immunoassay kit. The antibody was detected in 8/30 (27%) of ovarian cance rs, in 12/86 (14%) cancers of the uterine cervix, in 5/41 (12%) cancers of the uterine body, and 0/9 (0%) healthy women, The overall survival rate in patients with ovarian cancer was significantly worse in patients with anti- p53 antibody positivity than that in patients with anti-p53-antibody-negati ve cancers using the log rank test (p = 0.017). There was a significant cor relation between the presence of anti-p53 antibody and tissue overexpressio n of p53 in ovarian cancers, CGH analysis showed that the aberrations in DN A sequence copy number in ovarian cancers were significantly increased in a nti-p53-antibody-positive cases compared to anti-p53-antibody-negative case s including increased copy number on 20q and reduced copy number on 5q and 13q. Although the exact relationship between the presence of serum anti-p53 antibody (specific humoral response) and cytogenetic alterations is still unknown, these findings suggest that the measurement of serum anti-p53 anti body may be useful for the assessment of genetic instability and tumor biol ogical aggressiveness, Copyright (C) 2001 S. Karger AG. Basel.