title: Humoral immune response to p53 correlates with clinical course in colorectal cancer patients during adjuvant chemotherapy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Overexpression of p53 protein in malignancies induces an immune response in some cancer patients. We investigated whether production of serum antibodies against p53 (p53-Ab) is associated with pathohistological parameters of colorectal carcinoma and whether p53-Ab can serve as a tumor marker during cancer treatment.
  
  
  METHODS
  Serum samples from 220 colorectal cancer patients during surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy and 42 healthy controls were tested for the presence of p53-Ab by ELISA. Expression of p53 protein in tumors was determined using mouse anti-human p53-Ab.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Serum p53-Ab were detected in 18% of patients while all controls were negative. A strong correlation between p53-Ab production and p53 protein expression was observed: 70% of p53-Ab positive cases had tumors positive for p53 vs. 52% of p53-Ab negative cases. There was also a significant predominance of p53-Ab positive cases in Dukes' stages B and C over stage A. Although surgery alone reduced p53-Ab levels, decreases in p53-Ab titer became significant midterm through chemotherapy compared to both pre- and postoperative values and remained decreased until the completion of treatment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The presence of p53-Ab in sera of patients with colorectal cancer indicates tumors in more advanced histopathologic stages (Dukes' B, C). Due to low sensitivity (18%) p53-Ab are not recommendable as a preoperative marker for colorectal cancer. However, due to high specificity (100%), their monitoring after surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy has potential for early diagnosis of tumor relapse in p53-Ab positive cases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, 44 Binney Street, Boston, MA 02115, USA. mirna_lechpammer@dfci.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Mirna
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lechpammer
authors.forename: Josip
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lukac
authors.forename: Stanislav
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lechpammer
authors.forename: Dujo
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kovacević
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Loda
authors.forename: Zvonko
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Kusić
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000912:Antibodies, Neoplasm / Q000097:blood*; D000917:Antibody Formation; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000097:blood*; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000276:immunology*; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D011446:Prospective Studies; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000912:Antibodies, Neoplasm; D001323:Autoantibodies; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53