[P53-status in primary ovarian carcinomas, ovarian metastases of neoplasms in other sites and benign ovarian tumors: predictive value in comparison to histopathological parameters].

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine whether the tumor suppressor gene p53 can be used as a prognosis factor to assess individual patient risk in primary ovarian carcinoma.

Materials And Methods: The concentration of the mutated, as well as the wild type p53 was examined in 98 cases of ovarian carcinoma. Among 98 ovarian tumors examined, 77 were primary carcinomas, 14 tumors were metastasis of foreign tumors, and 7 were benign ovarian tumors. The pan-53 ELISA from Fa. Dianova was used to test for the p53 protein.

Results: The p53 protein concentration exhibited a wide range in the different tissue samples. Benign tumors contained significantly lower p53 concentrations than malignant tumors. After the data was analyzed using Kaplan-Meier, a p53 concentration of 507.1 pg/ml was established as cut-off point for assessing cancer prognosis as good or poor. Patients exhibiting p53 concentrations over 507.1 pg/ml had a median life expectancy of 20 months, and patients exhibiting lower tumor concentrations of p53 had a life expectancy of over 70 months. A significant relationship between patient life expectancy could also be shown for tumor stage and type, whereas not for tumor grading.

Conclusions: Based on the results of this study, the routine measurement of p53 may allow for a better prognostic assessment of life expectancy of patients with primary ovarian carcinoma.