Anti-p53 and anti-heat shock proteins antibodies in patients with malignant or pre-malignant lesions of the oral cavity

Background: Evaluation of circulating anti-p53 antibodies is an easy-to-per form, widely employed, procedure to assess the p53 status in cancer patient s. Materials and Methods: Levels of circulating anti-p53 antibodies in pati ents affected either by oral SCC or by pre-malignant oral lesions were assa yed using a commercial ELISA kit. Autoantibody titers to Hsp60 and Hsp72 we re determined by conventional ELISA. Results: Anti-p53 antibodies were dete cted in 3 out of 16 SCC-bearing patients (18.7%) and in 9 out of 13 patient s suffering from premalignant oral lesions (69.2%). High titers of anti-Hsp 60 autoantibodies were detected in 3 out of 29 patients (10.3%), while in a ll patients anti-Hsp72 titers were in the normal range. Conclusion: The pre sence of anti-p53 antibodies ii? both SCC-bearing patients and in patients with pre-malignant lesions support the notion brat p53 gene mutation is an early event in oral tumorigenesis and suggest that this assay could be usef ul for diagnostic screening of pre-neoplastic lesions at high risk of recur rence and/or transition towards overt malignancy.