[The relationship between p53 mutation and esophageal cancer biological behavior]

To investigate the relationship between p53 mutation and esophageal cancer biological behavior as well as its prognostic role in esophageal cancer.

Mutations in exon 5-8 of p53 were screened in 30 sporadic esophageal cancers by a combination of PCR-SSCP and PCR-direct DNA silver sequencing.

Mutations were found in 11 cases (36.7%). There were 9 point mutations, including 4 missense mutations, 2 nonsense mutations, 3 silent mutations. The other 2 cases were frameshift mutations due to base insertion and deletion. With statistical analysis, the p53 mutation rate was 56.3% in moderately and poorly-differentiated esophageal cancers, 14.3% in well-differentiated cases, with a highly significant difference between the two groups (P=0.025). The mutation rate of the cancers with all layers invaded (52.6%) was remarkably higher than that of the cancers without all layers invaded (9.1%)(P=0.024). A significantly higher rate of p53 mutation was also seen in cases with lymph nodes metastasis (61.5%) than in cases with no lymph nodes metastasis (17.6%) (P=0.024).

The data suggest that there is a strong correlation between the presence of p53 mutation and the biological behavior of human esophageal cancer, such as histologic differentiation, invasion stage, and regional lymph nodes metastasis. Detection of p53 mutation can be helpful in identifying more progressive esophageal cancer and assessing prognosis. The study also discussed the dominant negative effect of p53 and the genetic effect of silent mutation.