title: Detection of circulating anti-p53 antibodies in esophageal cancer patients.
abstract: It has been reported that circulating anti-p53 antibodies (p53-Ab) in the serum are detected in some cancers. To investigate the usefulness of detecting p53-Ab, we measured the circulating p53-Ab in comparison with squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCC-Ag) in patients with esophageal carcinoma. Serum specimens from 46 esophageal cancer patients (42 squamous cell carcinomas, 3 mucoepidermoid carcinomas and 1 basaloid squamous carcinoma) and 13 healthy subjects were studied. Serum p53-Ab was measured by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Surgically resected specimens from 43 patients were immunohistochemically stained for p53. Serum SCC-Ag was measured by a radioimmunoassay. The results were analyzed with the clinical data and outcome. Serum p53-Ab was detected in 13 (28%) of the 46 patients, but not in any of the healthy subjects. The positive rate was 0% (0/6) in stage I, 60% (3/5) in stage IIA, 30% (3/10) in stage IIB, 29% (7/24) in stage III and 0% (0/1) in stage IV. There was no difference in the outcome between the p53-Ab-positive and p53-Ab-negative patients. Immunohistochemically, 30 (70%) of the 43 specimens stained positively for p53. Serum p53-Ab was detected in 43% (13/30) of the patients with tumors which stained positively for p53. There was a close correlation between positivity for p53 immunostaining and positivity for p53-Ab (p<0.01). An elevated level of SCC-Ag was found in only 13%of the patients, and most patients positive for SCC-Ag already had advanced disease with lymph node metastasis and invasion to the adventitia. In conclusion, serum p53-Ab was detected in Japanese esophageal cancer patients at a frequency similar to that reported in Western countries. Serum p53-Ab may be a potentially useful molecular marker for detection and screening of esophageal cancer. Further studies of a large population may be required to elucidate the true diagnostic usefulness of measuring the serum p53-Ab.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery 1, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hagiwara
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Onda
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Miyashita
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sasajima
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000912:Antibodies, Neoplasm / Q000097:blood*; D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm / Q000097:blood; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D002281:Carcinoma, Basosquamous / Q000175:diagnosis; D018277:Carcinoma, Mucoepidermoid / Q000175:diagnosis; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000175:diagnosis; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015843:Serpins; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000912:Antibodies, Neoplasm; D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D015843:Serpins; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53; C051072:squamous cell carcinoma-related antigen