SinaryA novel quantitative ruminometric immunoassay (LIA)

SinaryAccumulation of the tumour-suppressor protein p53 in breast cancer is associated with several prognostic factors that indicate an aggressive, rapidly proliferating tumour with an unstable genome. To assess p53 accumulation in stage I breast cancer and to evaluate the prognostic value of both nuclear and cytoplasmic p53, 205 patients with node-negative breast cancer and tumour size Ess than or equal to 20 mm were examined. Immunohistochemistry was performed on frozen sections with the monoclonal antibodies PAb 1801 and DOI. Cllular p53 accumulation, within either the nucleus or the cytoplasm or in both, showed the same association with different pathobiological variables as nuclear accumulation alone. Eklven per cent of the tumours showed strong nuclear accumulation and were significantly correlated to age under 50 years, negative oestrogen receptor status, DNA aneuploidy, high S-phase fraction, high pathological grade and poor prognosis. The distant recurrence rate ratio was 6.2 (P=0.002). It is thus concluded that p53 accumulation is of prognostic value in early stage breast cancer.

The aim of this study was to investigate the frequency of p53 alterations in bilateral breast cancer and to evaluate a possible clonal relationship between the paired tumours regarding p53 alteration and other pathobiological variables. Tumours from 34 patients were investigated with immunohistochemistry, single strand conformation polymorphism analysis and DNA-sequence analysis applied to exons 5-8. Fifteen percent of the 68 tumours showed positive immunoreaction and/or presence of mutation. The occurrence of p53 accumulation was 9% and the prevalence of gene mutation 10%. No significant concordance was found between the tumours in the same patient for p53 alterations, progesterone receptor status or DNA ploidy. S-phase fraction showed a weak correlation, not statistically significant. Oestrogen receptor status was the only variable that exhibited a significant concordance. No convincing evidence was found for other associations between the paired tumours or for a high prevalence of p53 alterations in bilateral breast cancer.