The role of p53 immunohistochemical marker in development of superficial urothelial bladder carcinoma

Purpose. Determination the role of the p53 expression as a prognostic factor in the development of superficial urothelial bladder carcinoma.

Materials and methods. Medical histories of 72 patients (11 women and 61 men) with diagnosed primary superficial urothelial carcinoma of the bladder I and II grade were retrospectively analyzed. All patients were undergone a repeated transurethral resection was performed in 6 weeks after the first operation. In the case of the absence of residual tumor, cystoscopy was performed every 3 months during the first year then every 3–6 months during next 5 years. The average time of follow-up was 43.2 months. According to the standard protocol an immunohistochemical study with detection of p53 was carried out on 72 sections of formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tumor fragments. p53 expression was also determined in 10 histologically unchanged fragments of the bladder mucosa.

Results. Depending on the percent of nuclei with p53 expression, two groups were identified. The first group included 40 tumor samples (55.5 %) with p53 expression less than 20 % and 17 tumor samples (23.6 %) without p53 expression. The second group included 15 tumor samples (20.9 %) with p53 expression more than 20 % (4 patients – 20–40 %, 8 patients – 40–60 %, 3 patients – 60–80 %). р53 expression was not determined in the all 10 samples of normal bladder tissue. During follow-up period 1 of 57 patients of the first group has a disease progression comparing with 13 of 15 patients in the second group. Patients of the both group were similar in respect with clinical characteristics. The mean time to disease progression was 17.3 months.

Conclusion. Results of the current study shows that p53 immunohistochemical marker is a prognostic factor in the development of superficial urothelial bladder carcinoma.