Author/Authors :
Yang, Taewoo School of Life Sciences - Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea , Choi, Yegyun School of Life Sciences - Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea , Won Joh, Jae Department of Surgery - Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea , Cho, Steve K School of Life Sciences - Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea , Kim, Dae-Shick Department of Pathology - Samsung Medical Center - Samsung Biomedical Research Institute - Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
Abstract :
Background
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignant cancers with a poor prognosis. Several commonly investigated immunohistochemical markers in resected HCC have potential prognostic value, but the prognostic utility of p53 expression in HCC has remained elusive.
Aim
To evaluate the prognostic value of p53 and p53 phosphorylation at serine 15 (p53 Ser15-P) in patients with HCC.
Methods
Surgically resected tumors from 199 HCC patients were analyzed for p21, p53, p53 Ser15-P, and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) expression using immunohistochemistry.
Results
Stratifying by the expression of p53 Ser15-P (P = 0.016), but not by p53 (P = 0.301), revealed significantly different survival outcomes in patients with HCC. Moreover, our analysis demonstrated that patients who were PCNA-positive and p53 Ser15-P–negative had significantly worse survival outcomes (P = 0.001) than patients who were PCNA-positive and p53 Ser15-P–positive.
Conclusions
P53 Ser15-P is associated with poor outcomes in patients with HCC, and this prognostic marker is useful for predicting the survival of patients with PCNA-positive HCC
