Serum anti-p53 antibodies as a useful marker for prognosis of gastric carcinoma.

Mutations in the TP53 gene are the most common genetic alterations in cancer. Accumulation of mutated protein may induce circulating anti-p53 antibodies (anti-p53Ab) in sera of cancer patients. The aim of our work was to evaluate the presence and prognostic value of anti-p53Ab in gastric cancer patients and to investigate whether their presence is related to p53 overexpression in tumor tissue. Anti-p53Ab were analyzed in sera from 111 patients with gastric carcinoma and from 64 healthy donors by ELISA. p53 expression was also quantified by ELISA in biopsies of 54 gastric cancers and 22 healthy gastric mucosas. Significant anti-p53Ab levels were found in 15.3% of patients, whereas none of the 64 donor sera were positive. High levels of p53 expression were detected only in tumor tissue, in 72.2% of cases. A significant correlation was observed between anti-p53Ab and high levels of mutated p53 in tissue (p<0.05). The survival time of serum-positive patients was significantly longer than that of patients with low/negative serum levels, with a survival rate of 41.2% and 14.9%, respectively, over 48 months (p<0.05). Thus, detection of serum anti-p53Ab in gastric cancer patients can be useful to identify a subset of patients with better prognosis.