p53 and p73 expression in esophageal carcinoma correlate with clinicopathology of tumors.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Inactivation of tumor suppressors like p53 and p73 plays an important role in cancer initiation. We explored the clinical significance of p53 and p73 expression in esophageal carcinoma, along with their correlation with clinicopathological parameters of tumors for potential use in clinical evaluation of this disease. METHODOLOGY: In the present study, tumor samples and adjacent normal tissue samples were collected from 37 patients with esophageal cancer and the expression of p53 and p73 was detected by immunohistochemistry and correlated with clinicopathological parameters of tumors. RESULTS: p53 and p73 were more frequently expressed in esophageal cancer than in adjacent normal tissue. Indeed, there was a positive correlation between p53 and p73 expression and esophageal cancer (p<0.05). Analysis of clinicopathological features revealed that p53 expression was correlated with differentiation, distant metastases, and TNM stage (p<0.05) of tumors, but not with gender; age, infiltration depth, tumor size, or lymph node metastasis. In contrast, p73 expression was correlated only with distant metastases (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Increased expression of p53 and p73 in esophageal carcinoma may serve as an indicator of tumor severity. Detection of these proteins in future studies may help understand the mechanisms of development, invasion and metastasis in esophageal cancer.