Comparative evaluation of p53 mutation in pancreatic adenocarcinoma and chronic pancreatitis

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PA) has a very poor prognosis. In patients suffering from chronic pancreatitis (CP) the risk for the PA development is higher than in the general population. The purpose of the study was to compare the prevalence of p53 mutations in PA and CP in order to evaluate their usefulness in differential diagnosis of those diseases.

We examined 49 patients who underwent Whipple resection or distal pancreatectomy for pancreatic adenocarcinoma (26 subjects) or chronic pancreatitis (23 subjects). DNA from pancreatic tissue was analyzed for p53 mutations with PCR/SSCP methods.

The p53 gene mutation has been shown in 16 (61.5%) of the PA patients (9 in exon 5 and 7 in exon 7) and in 2 (8.6%) of CP patients (1 in exon 5 and 1 in exon 8; p < 0.001). There was a significant correlation between p53 mutation and G3 tumor differentiation (p < 0.01). Overall median survival in patients with PA was 8.5 months. No relationship between presence of p53 mutation and survival time in PA patients has been observed.

The specificity of p53 mutation for pancreatic cancer is very high. Our results indicate that p53 gene mutation may provide an additional tool in differential diagnosis of CP and PC.