No prognostic significance of p53 expression in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: It is generally accepted that the overexpression of p53 protein is associated with poor prognosis in breast, colorectal, and other types of cancer. However, the prognostic significance of p53 aberrations in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma has yet to be determined. We attempted to analyze the relationship between p53 expression and the clinicopathologic features of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma by reviewing the medical records of a large patient population. Our study of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma involves the largest patient population to date. METHODS: p53 expression in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded samples of 239 patients with primary esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (TNM stage I:79 cases, stage II: 82 cases, stage III: 78 cases), who underwent esophageal resection without additional treatment, were analyzed by immunohistochemical staining using a polyclonal antibody, RSP53. The relationships between p53 immunoreactivity and prognostic factors were determined by the chi(2) test, and the prognostic impact of p53 protein expression was analyzed by univariate and multivariate survival analyses. RESULTS: In 115 (48.1%) of 239 esophageal tumors, nuclear immunoreactivity for the p53 protein was detected. The expression of the p53 protein did not correlate with sex, age, histological grading, lymph node metastasis, vascular invasion, or TNM stage. Similarly, p53 expression did not correlate with prognosis in univariate and multivariate survival analysis. CONCLUSIONS: The expression of the p53 gene product had no impact on the prognosis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.