Determination of Both TP53 Mutation Status and the Amount of p53 Protein has Limited Diagnostic Importance for Patients with Ovarian Cancer

Abstract

Background: Ovarian cancer is one of the most aggressive types of gynecologic cancers. Many patients have a relapse within two years after diagnosis and subsequent therapy. Among different genetic changes generally believed to be important for the development of cancer, TP53 is the most common mutation in the case of ovarian tumors. Objective: Our work aims to compare the outcomes of different comparisons based on the overall survival of ovarian cancer patients, determination of TP53 status, and amount of p53 protein in tumor tissues. Methods: We analyzed and compared a collective of 436 ovarian patient’s data. Extracted data include TP53 mutation status, p53 protein level, and information on the overall survival. Values for p53 protein level in dependence of TP53 mutation status were compared using the Independent-Samples t-Test. Survival analyses were displayed by Kaplan-Meier plots, using the log-rank test to check for statistical significance. Results: We have not found any statistically significant correlations between determination of TP53 status, amount of p53 protein in tumor tissues, and overall survival of ovarian cancer patients. Conclusion: In ovarian tumors both determination of TP53 status as well as p53 protein amount has only limited diagnostic importance.