p53 protein immunoexpression in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and adjacent epithelium

Immunoreactivity for p53 tumor suppressor gene product is commonly found in human malignancies and some premalignant lesions, but its role in cancer development and its value as a marker of tumor biologic behavior is still unclear.

This study was undertaken to assess p53 immunoexpression in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and attempts to determine its correlation with morphological features associated with tumor behavior.

Immunohistochemical study was performed on archival paraffin-embedded tissue of 37 esophageal squamous cell carcinomas and respective adjacent mucosa.

Twenty-one tumors (56.8%) demonstrated specific staining for p53. Sixteen areas of dysplasia were present in 14 out of the 35 cases. p53 positivity was found in one low-grade dysplasia and in six high-grade dysplasias. By univariate analysis, p53 immunoexpression correlated positively with local invasion (P = 0.01) and perineural spread (P = 0.04). Multivariate analysis with logistic regression showed that tumor invasion was the only factor that discriminated between p53 positive and p53 negative cases (OR: 15.6, P < 0.02). No relationship was found between p53 expression and tumor grade, DNA nuclear ploidy, and S-phase fraction.

These data suggest that p53 dysfunction may be implicated in early, preinvasive, stages of esophageal cancer as well as in the tumor progression related to a more invasive phenotype.