Serum evaluation of P53 protein in patients with gynaecological cancer

Sera from patients with gynaecological cancer including the ovary, endometrium or cervix were examined for p53 protein, using the Pantropic p53 quantitative ELISA. Patients with benign gynaecological pathologies were included as a control group. p53 values ranged from undetectable to high levels of the protein (range: 0-531 pg/ml). Using the value of 200 pg/ml as the cut-off, p53 serum levels were found to be elevated in 23% of the patients with ovarian cancer, in 16% of the patients with endometrial cancer and in 14% of the patients with cervical cancer. In the control group, increased serum p53 levels were found in 3.3% of patients. No differences were observed among the groups with different types of cancer or at different stages, but the differences between the cancer groups and the control group were statistically significant. Our results suggest that serum p53 evaluation could be an adjunctive tool to the diagnostic laboratory tests for preoperatively gynaecological cancers and both a competitive and alternative useful procedure for the detection of p53 gene mutations.