[Expression and clinical significance of p53 protein , estrogen and progesterone receptors in non-small cell lung cancer].
BACKGROUND
To investigate the relationships between expression of tumor suppressor gene p53 protein , estrogen receptor (ER) , progesterone receptor (PR) and clinicopathology and prognosis in human non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) .


METHODS
Expression of p53 protein , ER and PR in 147 NSCLC specimen was detected by SP immunohistochemistry method.


RESULTS
Overall , 61. 2 %(90/ 147) tumor tissues had positive p53 staining. The positive rate of p53 expression in squamous cell carcinoma , adenocarcinoma , adenosquamous carcinoma and large cell carcinoma was 63. 5 %(40/ 63) , 57. 6 %(38/ 66) , 66. 7 %(10/ 14) , and 50 %(2/ 4) respectively. The overexpression of p53 protein was associated with the prognosis of patients with adenocarcinoma , the positive rate of p53 expression of patients who survived for less than 3 years was 75 % , which was significantly higher than 44. 7 % of patients who survived for more than 3 years ( P < 0. 025) . For ER and PR , the overall positive rate was 49. 7 %(73/ 147) and 76. 9 %(113/ 147) respectively. The positive rate of squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma was significantly higher than that of squamous cell carcinoma ( P < 0. 005) . Besides , expression area of ER and PR was often in the nucleus for squamous cell carcinoma and in the cytoplasma for adenocarcinoma ( P < 0. 005) . The 3-year survival rate in patients with cytoplasma-staining for PR was significantly higher than that with nucleus-staining ( P < 0. 025) .


CONCLUSIONS
The results suggest that overexpression of p53 in adenocarcinoma could be used as a prognostic factor for the patients. Detection of ER and PR may have a definite value in differentiating squamous cell carcinoma from adenocarcinoma. The prognosis is poor for PCR-positive patients with nucleus-staining.
Department of Pathology , Beijing Thorax Tumor and Tuberculosis Hospital(Institute) , Beijing 101149 , P. R. China.
H
H
Zhang
F
F
Lu
L
L
Deng
S
S
Wang
H
H
Yan