Department of Pathology, Soonchunhyang University College of Medicine, Chungnam, Korea.
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: To evaluate the prognostic significances of p53 and cathepsin D in the prostatic carcinoma, we compared them to other prognostic factors, such as nuclear grade and clinical stage.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: The material consisted of 40 paraffin-embedded, primary prostate carcinomas. We examined the expression of p53 and cathepsin D using immunohistochemical staining and compared their expression with the grade and stage.
RESULTS: The expressions of p53 were noted in the nucleus of tumor cells and cathepsin D were noted in the cytoplasm of tumor cells. Thirteen of 40 tumors were positive for p53. There were more expressing p53 in samples (40%) from prostatic cancer with a high Gleason score group than in samples (28%) from prostatic cancer with low Gleason score group. The expression of p53 was 22% in clinical stage B and C groups and 35% in clinical stage D group. These results showed that p53 expression was not statistically correlated with Gleason score and clinical stage, but there were trends to increased p53 expression with high Gleason score and progressed clinical stage (p>0.05). Progressed clinical stage group showed higher expression of cathepsin D than early clinical stage group. However, there were no statistical correlations between expression of cathepsin D and Gleason score, and clinical stage (p>0.05).
CONCLUSION: These results suggest that the overexpression of p53 and cathepsin D may be associated with tumor differentiation and clinical stage, but have limited prognostic value in prostatic carcinoma.
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