Clinical evaluation of serum p53 antibodies in patients with upper urinary tract tumors

PURPOSE: We retrospectively assessed the clinical significance of anti-p53 antibody (S-p53Ab) status in the serum of patients with upper urinary tract tumors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to analyze S-p53Abs in 63 upper urinary tract tumors. Its incidence and clinical or pathological background were analyzed in comparison with 80 bladder tumors. RESULTS: The prevalence of S-p53Abs in patients with upper urinary tract tumors was higher than that in patients with bladder tumors (27.0% vs 17.5%). Especially, 34.8% of patients showed positive S-p53Abs in invasive upper urinary tract tumors (pT1 or more). In upper urinary tract tumors the prevalence of S-p53Abs significantly correlated with higher grade (p <0.01), higher stage (p = 0.02), positive lymph nodes (p = 0.03) and p53 nuclear accumulation (p <0.01). However, disease specific survival after nephroureterectomy did not differ between patients with negative and positive S-p53Abs. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest the possibility of the clinical application of S-p53Abs, especially for the detection of high grade or high stage tumors in the upper urinary tract. However, the usefulness of S-p53Abs as prognostic marker seems to be extremely limited in patients with urothelial tumors.