Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 18, 2026
Yeast As a Chassis for Developing Functional Assays to Study Human P53
Published on: August 4, 2019
Prognostic value of p53 molecular status in high-risk primary breast cancer
P Marchetti1, K Cannita, E Ricevuto
1Department of Experimental Medicine, University of L'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy.
Background:
Mutations in the p53 gene are the most common genetic alterations in human primary breast carcinoma and these mutations are often associated with worse prognosis and chemo/radioresistance.
Patients And Methods:
The analysis of the p53 gene was performed by fluorescence-assisted mismatch analysis in 13 consecutive high-risk primary breast cancer (HR-BC) patients with 10 or more involved axillary nodes to evaluate its prognostic value.
Results:
Three p53 mutations (23%) and four allelic variants were detected. After a median follow-up of 52 months the HR-BC disease-free survival (DFS) was 51% and overall survival 79%. All patients harboring a p53 mutation (p53(mut)) relapsed within 10 months of the median DFS while 67% of those showing a wild-type p53 status (p53(wt)) survive disease-free at a median follow-up of 43 months. One p53(mut) patient is still alive while all the p53(wt) patients survive at 56 months median follow-up. Two out of the four p53(wt) relapsing breast cancer patients showed the Arg72Pro allelic variant; one of these died at 75 months.
Conclusions:
p53 mutations may help identify a subset of very high risk breast cancer patients (vHR-BC) with worse prognosis.
