title: Prognostic value of p21(WAF1) and p53 expression in breast carcinoma: an immunohistochemical study in 261 patients with long-term follow-up.
abstract: p21 protein (p21) inhibitor of cyclin-dependent kinases is a critical downstream effector in the p53-specific pathway of growth control and can also be induced by p53-independent pathways in relation to terminal differentiation. We investigated p21 immunoreactivity in 261 breast carcinomas (141 node negative and 120 node positive) with long-term follow-up (median, 73 months; range, 37-119). p21 was seen in 214 (82%) infiltrating tumors, staining was nuclear and heterogeneous, and the p21 labeling index ranged from 0 to 90%. Sixty-eight (32%) patients showed p21 overexpression (>10% of reactive tumor cells). p21 overexpression was associated with large tumor size, positive nodal status, high histological grade, and high mitotic count and was related to short disease-free survival (DFS) in the whole series of patients (P = 0.04), in the node-negative subgroup (P = 0.004), and in the group of patients who did not undergo systemic adjuvant therapy (P = 0.003). In patients treated with systemic adjuvant therapy, bivariate analysis of the combined p21 and p53 phenotypes showed that p21+/p53+ tumors were associated with long DFS and overall survival (OS), whereas p21-/p53+ tumors had the worst prognosis. In treated patients, multivariate analysis showed that the p21-/53+ phenotype was independently associated with short DFS and OS. Our present data support the hypothesis that p21/p53 heterogeneous expression may be of clinical relevance for the therapeutic response to chemotherapy/hormonotherapy. The p21-/p53+ phenotype could correspond to a situation where p53 overexpression really reflects complete abrogation of p53 function. These cases with disrupted p53 function should have impaired the G1 checkpoint and may not be able to activate the apoptotic cascade in response to DNA-damaging drugs.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Histopathology, S. Chiara Hospital, Largo Medaglie d'Oro, 38100, Trento, Italy.
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Caffo
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Doglioni
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Veronese
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bonzanini
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Marchetti
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Buttitta
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fina
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Leek
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Morelli
authors.forename: P D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Palma
authors.forename: A L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Harris
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Barbareschi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D018270:Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D050759:Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p21; D016213:Cyclins / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D016019:Survival Analysis; D013997:Time Factors; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / Q000096:biosynthesis*
chemical_list: C493956:CDKN1A protein, human; D050759:Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p21; D016213:Cyclins; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53