Clinico-pathological characteristics of colorectal cancer and serum anti-p53 antibodies.

The purpose of this study was to correlate the presence of p53 antibodies in sera of patients with colorectal adenocarcinoma with size, site and stage of the tumour, age and sex of a patient and the level of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) in the serum. p53 antibodies were detected using enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent assay (ELISA). Serum p53 antibodies were detected in 30 of 145 patients (21%), mostly in Astler-Coller stage B1 (28% of patients). No association was found between p53 antibody status in stage A+B1+B2 vs stages C1+C2+D (22% vs 19%) i.e. between patients without and with metastases to regional lymph nodes and/or distant metastases. Serum p53 antibodies were detected in 9 of 34 patients (26%) with tumour localised in the right part vs 21 of 109 patients (19%) with tumours in the left part of the colon and in 18 of 96 (19%) of patients with tumours localised in rectosigmoideum vs 12 of 47 (26%) with tumours in the remaining colon. There was no significant correlation between serum anti p53 antibody and CEA statuses. Increased level of serum CEA was seen in 46/145 (32%) patients. Patients with C1+C2+D stage cancers had high serum CEA level more frequently than did patients with A+B1+B2 stage tumours (44% vs 19% respectively, p < 0.001). Of 102 cases with normal CEA level, 19 (19%) were positive for anti p53 antibodies. These results together with the literature data [11, 20] indicate that approximately 27% CEA negative patients may have serum p53 antibodies. Therefore simultaneous assessment of serum p53 antibodies and CEA seems to be useful for monitoring high risk patients and for postoperative patient monitoring.