Abstract

PURPOSE
Angiogenesis, playing a critical role in tumor growth, development, and metastatic process, is alleged to be related to the prognostic factors and patient's survival of the colo-rectal cancer. The p53 gene, present in short arm of chromosome 17, is involved in multistep colo-rectal carcinogenesis. The correlation of p53 gene and angiogenesis has been recently reported. So, we designed to assess (1) the rate of p53 overexpression, (2) the prognostic significance of microvessel count, and (3) the relationship of p53 overexpression and angiogenesis in early colo-rectal cancer(ECC) patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study material included 68 ECC from 65 patients, 40 mucosal (m-ECC) and 28 submucosal ECCs (sm-ECC). Immunostainings against p53 and factor VIII-related antigen were done and the results were analyzed with respect to tumor depth, site, and differentiation. And also the correlation between p53 overexpression and microvessel counts(MVC) was performed.
RESULT
The rate of p53 overexpression was higher in sm-ECC than in m-ECC (p < 0.05). The rate of p53 overexpression was highest in sigmoid colon and statistically significantly different compared with other sites. The differentiation of the tumor was closely correlated with p53 overexpression and the poorer the differentiation, the more overexpression of p53 (p<0.05). There was no significant difference between MVCs of m-ECC and sm-ECC (27.2+/-5.5 and 29.8 +/-6.0,respectively). However, MVC were higher in sigmoid colon than in any other sites (p<0.05). MVC did not show significant correlation with tumor differentiation or p53 overexpression.
CONCLUSION
These data indicate that p53 overexpression is correlated with tumor depth and differentiation but not MVC. The significance of higher MVC and p53 overexpression in sigmoid colon are reserved for further studies.

• Keywords: Depth;Differentiation;Early colorectal cancer;p53;Microvessel count