An immunohistochemical study of p53 protein in cervical intraepithelial neoplasia and squamous cell carcinoma

p53 mutations are known to occur frequently in human cancers where they are considered to be an important event in the stepwise progression towards malignant transformation. It is therefore interesting to compare p53 expression in the uterine cervix for non-neoplastic/metaplastic squamous epithelium, cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) and invasive squamous cell carcinoma. One hundred and nineteen biopsied and resected specimens of the uterine cervix were stained with an anti-human p53 protein monoclonal antibody by the streptavidin-biotin immunoperoxidase method. Histologically these could be categorized into non-neoplastic/dysplastic conditions, including condyloma (34 cases), CIN 1-3 (66 cases) and invasive squamous cell carcinoma (19 cases). Fifty eight per cent (11/19) of the invasive squamous cell carcinomas and 11% (7/66) of the CIN stained positively for p53. Except for 3 cases of invasive squamous cell carcinoma, there was only sporadic intranuclear staining of less than 5% of the cells. No staining was observed in all non-neoplastic/metaplastic squamous epithelial cells. The pattern of p53 staining is significantly different for all 3 categories. However it is undetermined as to whether the positive immunoperoxidase staining is a direct consequence of p53 gene mutation or otherwise.