Immunohistochemical Analysis of p53 And Bcl2 in Esophageal Cancer Patients.
aMolecular research Lab, Dept. of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmacy, bSchool of pharmacy; Islamic Azad university of medical sciences and, Tehran, Iran, cDept. of Anatomy and Embriology, Faculty of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Background: Cancer of the esophagus ranks among the 10 most frequent cancers in the world, particularly in developing countries with marked regional variations in incidence and mortality. The current challenges in the management of esophageal cancers are to obtain a better understanding of underlying molecular alterations to provide new treatment options. Aim: This study was undertaken to determine the p53 and Bcl2 protein alterations in esophageal carcinomas, and to correlate molecular alterations with clinicopathological findings. Methods: Tissue samples of 29 patients with squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma of the esophagus were randomly selected for this study. Tumor samples were analyzed by immunohistochemical techniques using primary antibodies for p53 (DO-7; Dako) and Bcl2 (124; Dako), and LSAB2 detection kit (Dako-Denmark). Results: Positive immunostaining for p53 and Bcl2 were observed in 82.7% and 55% of tumor samples, respectively. Significant correlation was found between p53 and Bcl2 expression (p=0.008). Positive p53 immunostaining correlated with tumor grade (p=0.008), tumor size (p=0.002) and age (p=0.092). But no significant association was observed with tumor type and gender of patients. Conclusions: The p53 and Bcl2 proteins have important roles in the tumor progression and chemotherapeutic outcomes and our data further emphasize on necessity of determination of gene profile for each patient’s tumor. Our data also showed that 33% of patients with positive p53 were Bcl2 negative indicating a double gene alteration in these patients that obviously affects their prognosis and mandates special attention for choosing most effective chemotherapeutic regimen.
Paper presented at the International Symposium on Predictive Oncology and Intervention Strategies; Nice, France; February 7 - 10, 2004; in poster session 896 (Tumor suppressor genes).