1Departments of Radiation Oncology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea. 2Departments of Pathology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea. 3Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea. 4Yonsei Cancer Center, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: The purpose was to investigate the spontaneous apoptotic index (SAI) and p53 protein expression and to identify the role of SAI and p53 protein positivity.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty six patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix, FIGO stage IIB, treated with curative radiotherapy alone between 1990 and 1993 were included in this study. Definitive radiotherapy including external beam and high-dose-rate brachytherapy was given. Pretreatment paraffin-embedded biopsy specimens of those patients were scored for apoptosis and p53 protein expression using mouse mondegrees Clonal antibody (DO-7) by immuno staining. Clinicopathologic characteristics were also studied in relation to SAI and p53 protein expression, and as prognostic factors for clinical outcome.
RESULTS: SAI and p53 were not related to any clinical characteristics. The range of the SAI was 0.2~4.7% (median 1.1%, mean 1.5%). The rate of p53 protein expression was 65.2% (30/46).
Patients whose tumors had high SAI and low p53 protein positivity had better treatment outcome than those with lower SAI. There was also a significant correlation between the SAI and p53 protein expression.
CONCLUSION: The pretreatment SAI and p53 oncoprotein expression are clinically useful in predicting the clinical outcome of FIGO stage IIB squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix patients treated with definitive radiotherapy.
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