Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC) is the one of most frequent cancers in Korea,and the mortality rate from HCC is highest in this country all over the world, probably due to high hepatitis B virus infection rate and extremely poor progonosis. Established prognostic factors in HCC are presence of venous invasion, multiplicity and curative resection, but we do not know all about prognosis in curatively resected cases. So, we studied p53 protein expression in Korean HCC patients, which is independent prognostic factor in breast cancer and lung cancer. We performed immunohistochemistry using Pab 180l, which is monoclonal antibody for p53 protein in 39 HCC patients, who underwent curative liver resection in Korea Cancer Center Hospital. Positive expression rate of p53 protein was 26 %. The p53 protein expression seemed to be higher in HCC patients with poor prognostic factors such as vein invasion, absence of encapsulation, and multiplicity, but they did not reach the stastistical significance. And slightly better survival rates were shown in p53 negative protein group, but no significant difference was detected(p=0.593). In conclusion, we could not detect the prognostic significance of p53 protein expression in curatively resected HCC patients, but we think that more extensive study will be needed in more patients using diverse antibodies to mutant p53 protein.

• Keywords: Hepatocellular carcinoma, Prognostic factor, p53 protein