Expression of p73,p53 in Ovarian Epithelial Neoplasms and their correlations

Objective:To investigate the expression of p73,p53 protein,and analyze their roles in human ovarian epithelial neoplasms. Methods:SP immunohistochemical technique was used to assess the expression of p73,p53 in ovarian tumor respectively. The results were analyzed in terms of clinical stage,histologic grade,and histologic type,and the prognostic significance of the expression levels of each protein in ovarian cancer patients was assessed. Analyses were performed on SPSS 11.5. Results:①The expression of p73 protein was not positive in benign ovarian tumors,but positive expression was found in borderline tumors and primary ovarian epithelial malignant tumors. The expression of p73 was negatively correlated with the differentiation of malignant tumorand it had higher expression in cases of lower differentiation. There was no difference of p73 expression among cases with different clinical stage. ②p53 protein expression was not detected in benign ovarian tumors; In contrast,p53 protein expressions were detected in borderline tumors and primary ovarian epithelial malignant tumors. There were significant difference of p53 expression among the three groups.A significantly higher p53 accumulation rate was observed in serous adenocarcinomas compared to clear cell adenocarcinomas. p53 accumulation correlated with advanced clinical stage. Moreover,a significant positive correlation was found between p53 accu-mulation and histologic grade in ovarian epithelial malignant tumors. ③There was significant positive correlation between p73 expression and p53 accumulation status in ovarian epithelial malignant tumors. ④p53 accumulation was significantly correlated with poor patient survival,whereas p73 expression was not correlated with survival in ovarian epithelial malig-nant tumors. Conclusion:These results revealed an association of p73 overexpression with advanced ovarian epithelial malignant tumors which probably suggested the p73 overexpression as an indicator of poor prognosis. p73 expression was significantly associated with p53 protein accumulation in ovarian epithelial malignant tumors.