P53 PROTEIN AND VIMENTIN IN INVASIVE DUCTAL NOS BREAST-CARCINOMA - RELATIONSHIP WITH SURVIVAL AND SITES OF METASTASES

p53 protein and vimentin status were available from immunocytochemical studies of 253 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded invasive ductal not o therwise specified (NOS) carcinomas from patients for whom follow-up d ata was also on file. For the 127 node-negative patients, multivariate analysis showed a highly significant correlation between p53 and vime ntin (P < 0.001), a strong correlation between vimentin and probabilit y of survival to 90 months but only a weak association between p53 and survival to 90 months. p53 also never entered trees of prognostic ind icators derived using stepwise regression with Kaplan-Meier statistics for node-negative and node-positive subgroups, while vimentin status dominated the node-negative trunk. In addition, p53 and vimentin statu s were analysed versus the site of the first distant metastasis for no de-negative and node-positive patients. Analysis by p53 status showed no significant effect on visceral metastases. In contrast, vimentin-po sitive primaries metastasised twice (and in node-negative patients, 3. 5 times) as often to lung, liver and brain as did the vimentin-negativ e primaries. Both p53-positive and vimentin-positive tumours showed a significantly lower tendency to metastasise to the bone than did their negative counterparts.