Mutation and/or deletion of p53 tumor suppressor gene is one of the most common genetic abnormalities in diverse human cancers. The wild-type p53 gene participates in suppressing cell transformation while the mutant forms have tumorigenic
potential. The
wild-type p53 with a relatively short half-life is found in all normal cell types with very low concentration and is undetectable by standard immunohistochemical staining. The mutant-forms with their prolonged half-life accumulate to much higher
concentatrations in cells and can be detected by immunohistochemical staining.
We evaluated p53 expression by immunohistochemical staining with anti-p53 monoclonal antibody, DO-1 (Oncogene Science, Uniondale, NY) in 48 paraffin-embedded tissues of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas and investigated the relationship
between p53
expression and clinicopathological status.
Eighteen (38%) out of 48 cases showed p53 hyperexpression, however there was no singificant correlation between p53 expression and clinicopathological parameters such as tumor staging, lymph node status, and tumor differentiation grad. (Korean J
Otolaryngol 38:3, 1995)
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