The aim of the present study was to evaluate the clinical significance of the serum anti-p53 antibody in patients with uterine and ovarian cancer. Some 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 enzyme immunoassay kit. The antibody was detected in 8/30 (27%) of ovarian cancers, 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-negative cancers using the log rank test (p = 0.017). There was a significant correlation between the presence of anti-p53 antibody and tissue overexpression of p53 in ovarian cancers. CGH analysis showed that the aberrations in DNA sequence copy number in ovarian cancers were significantly increased in anti-p53-antibody-positive cases compared to antip53-antibody-negative cases 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 antibody may be useful for the assessment of genetic instability and tumor biological aggressiveness.
Copyright 2001 S. Karger AG, Basel.