The presence of serum anti-p53 antibodies from patients with invasive ductal carcinoma of breast: correlation to other clinical and biological parameters

Breast cancer has been the most common malignant tumor among women in many large cities of China. The aim of this study was to clarify the prognostic significance of serum anti-p53 antibodies (p53 Abs) in Chinese patients of breast cancer. One hundred and forty-four patients with invasive ductal carcinoma of breast were involved in this study. The expressions of ER, PR, c-erbB-2 and p53 were immunostained in tumor tissues and serum p53 Abs were assayed using ELISA method. The correlations between p53 Abs and other clinical and biological markers were analyzed. Among 144 patients, 31 (21.5%) had positive p53 Abs, which was associated with several poor prognostic parameters including higher clinical stage (p = 0.0233), lymph nodes metastasis (p = 0.0033), negative ER expression (p = 0.0250) and positive c-erbB-2 status (p = 0.0227). There was also a strong correlation between p53 Abs and tumor p53 positivity (p < 0.0001). These results indicated that the presence of p53 Abs is probably triggered by the accumulation of tumor p53 protein, and it could be a useful marker to complement routine prognostic factors in breast cancer patients.