Journal of the Korean Cancer Association  1997;29(3):404-411

Clinicopathological Correlation of Bcl-2 and p53 Immunohistochemistry in Breast Cancer.

Ja Yun KOO 1 ; Hy De LEE ; Woo Hee JUNG

Affiliations

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Keywords

Breast cancer; Bcl-2; p53

Country

Republic of Korea

Language

Korean

Abstract

PURPOSE: Bcl-2 and p53 are known to act as a regulator of apoptosis in breast cancer and we evaluated the significance of these gene expressions and correlation with prognostic factors in breast cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In order to investigate the expression of Bcl-2 and p53, we analyzed immunochemistry staining from paraffin blocks in a series of 80 women with breast cancer. Expression was then compared with the established indicators of prognosis. RESULTS: Bcl-2 positivity was 45% and p53 was 32.2%. No relationships could be observed between bcl-2 and node status,tumor size and also between p53 and node status, differentiation,tumor size. Strong positive relationships were seen between bcl-2 and estrogen receptor (ER) (p<0.0001), progesterone receptor (PR) (p<0.001). p53 also showed relationships with ER and PR (p<0.05) Histologic (p<0.05) and nuclear grade (p<0.05) showed relationships with bcl-2 but not with p53. Inverse relationship was noted between p53 and ER, PR (p<0.05). Inverse relationship was also found between bcl-2 and p53 expression (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: This study suggest that there may be a possibility that bcl-2 and p53 expressions can affect tumor growth and prognosis in breast cancer patients.