Clinicopathologic and Diagnostic Significance of p53 Protein Expression in Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma

Background: p53 protein expression has been detected immunohistochemically in papillary thyroid carcinoma(PTC). We investigated the relations between its expression and clinicopathologic features and its significance as a diagnostic marker. Materials and Methods: We compared and evaluated 93 patients in whom thyroidectomy with lymph node dissection had been performed to treat PTC for clinicopathologic significance and 102 patients with 23 papillary thyroid overt carcinomas (POC), 57 papillary thyroid microcarcinomas(PMC), 5 follicular adenomas (FA), 5 Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) and 12 nodular hyperplasias (NH) for significance as a diagnostic marker. Expression of p53 protein was evaluated immunohistochemically in sections of paraffin-embedded tissue. Results: Statistical analysis showed significantly different expression of p53 in PTC versus other benign thyroid lesions (BTL). The diagnostic sensitivity and specificity were 85.0% and 72.7%, respectively. Overexpression of p53 protein was observed in 44 of the 93 PTC cases (47.3%), but no significant correlation between p53 protein overexpression and clinicopathologic features (age, size, multiplicity, lymph node metastasis, extrathyroidal extension and vascular invasion) was noted. Conclusions: p53 is valuable to distinguish PTC from other BTL, but there is no correlation between p53 protein overexpression and clinicopathologic features.