Association of positive serum anti-p53 antibodies with poor prognosis in bladder cancer patients

AIMS: To assess the association of serum anti-p53 antibodies and overexpression of tumor p53 protein with survival and prognostic factors in patients with urinary bladder tumors. METHODS: Seventy-six patients with transitional cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder were assessed prospectively (Ta, 18; T(1), 30; > or =T(2), 28). Serum anti-p53 antibodies were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Tumor p53 gene overexpression was assessed by immunohistochemical staining. The mean follow-up time was 34 months. RESULTS: Serum anti-p53 antibodies were positive in 25 patients (33%). Overexpression of tumor p53 protein was positive in 41 patients (54%). There was an association between the presence of serum anti-p53 antibodies and tumor p53 gene overexpression (P = 0.001). The total survival of the patients with positive serum anti-p53 antibodies was shorter than the patients with positive tumor p53 gene overexpression (P < 0.001, P = 0.344, respectively). In the multivariate survival analysis, both tumor stage and serum-p53 antibodies were found to be independent survival predictors (P = 0.004, P = 0.006, respectively). CONCLUSION: Serum anti-p53 antibody positive tumors had a worse prognosis than those with negative serum levels, regardless of the p53 status of the tumor.