p53 immunoreactivity in primary and metastatic prostatic adenocarcinoma

p53 is a tumor suppressor protein that is overexpressed in a variety of human neoplasms, including prostatic adenocarcinoma. Recent studies have demonstrated a significant positive correlation between extent of p53 overexpression and tumor grade in prostatic adenocarcinoma. Because it appears that mutations of p53 might play a role in the pathogenesis of a subset of biologically aggressive prostatic neoplasms, we sought to examine the frequency of p53 overexpression in primary and metastatic prostatic adenocarcinoma. Using a monoclonal antibody (D07) directed against both the wild-type and mutant forms of p53, we examined p53 immunoreactivity in 36 cases of primary prostatic adenocarcinoma, 17 cases of metastatic prostatic adenocarcinoma involving lymph nodes and 15 cases of metastatic prostatic adenocarcinoma involving bone. Twenty-eight percent (10/36) of the primary tumors displayed nuclear staining for p53. Increased p53 immunoreactivity was observed in only 6% (1/16) of prostatic adenocarcinomas with a total Gleason score of 6 or less, as compared with 45% (9/20) of those adenocarcinomas with a Gleason score of 7 or more. Fifty-nine percent (10/17) of the lymph node metastases and 43% (6/14) of the bone metastases displayed nuclear immunoreactivity for p53. Our results indicate that increased p53 expression is positively correlated with increased histologic grade and with the presence of metastatic disease in patients with prostatic adenocarcinoma, and they suggest that mutations of the p53 gene may play a role in mediating the behavior of a biologically aggressive subset of this common neoplasm.