title: Immunohistochemical analysis of bcl-2 and p53 expression in breast carcinomas: their correlation with Ki-67 growth fraction.
abstract: We examined 59 breast cancers for p53 and bcl-2 protein expression by immunohistochemistry. The results were correlated with Ki-67 immunostaining. p53-negativity was noted in 40 cases and the remaining 19 tumours were p53-positive. Thirty-six tumours showed strong expression of bcl-2 and in 23 no staining for this protein was observed. We found statistically significant reverse correlation between expression of p53 and bcl-2 in majority of carcinomas: 31 cases were bcl-2 positive and p53-negative, and 14 tumours were bcl-2-negative and p53-positive. Six carcinomas showed no nuclear staining for Ki-67 and in the remaining 53 the percent of cancer cells positive for Ki-67 ranged from 1 to 60 (mean: 14.6). In these 53 cases we found that bcl-2-positive tumours were characterized by lower proliferation than bcl-2-negative tumours, the mean value of Ki-67 immunostaining being 10.7% and 23.0%, respectively. p53-negative tumours showed lower proliferation than p53-positive tumours: mean Ki-67 index was 10.2% and 23.9%, respectively. We conclude that immunohistochemically detected p53 and bcl-2 proteins show a significant inverse relationship in majority of breast carcinomas and their expression correlates with tumour proliferation (Ki-67 immunostaining).
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Medical Academy, Szczecin, Poland.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Gorczyca
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Markiewski
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kram
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tuziak
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Domagala
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry*; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000737:chemistry*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D019394:Ki-67 Antigen; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis / Q000473:pathology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000032:analysis*; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000032:analysis*; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000032:analysis*; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D019394:Ki-67 Antigen; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53