The New England Journal of Medicine
e-mail icon  FREE NEJM E-TOC    HOME   |   SUBSCRIBE   |   CURRENT ISSUE   |   PAST ISSUES   |   COLLECTIONS   |    Advanced Search
Sign in | Get NEJM's E-Mail Table of Contents — Free | Subscribe
 
Original Article
PreviousPrevious
Volume 346:420-427 February 7, 2002 Number 6
NextNext

Expression of p53 and Prognosis in Children with Malignant Gliomas
Ian F. Pollack, M.D., Sydney D. Finkelstein, M.D., Jeffrey Woods, B.S., Judith Burnham, B.A., Emiko J. Holmes, M.S., Ronald L. Hamilton, M.D., Allan J. Yates, M.D., Ph.D., James M. Boyett, Ph.D., Jonathan L. Finlay, M.B., Ch.B., Richard Sposto, Ph.D., for the Children's Cancer Group

 Sign up for free e-toc
 

This Article
-Full Text
- PDF
-PDA Full Text
-PowerPoint Slide Set

Tools and Services
-Add to Personal Archive
-Add to Citation Manager
-Notify a Friend
-E-mail When Cited

More Information
-PubMed Citation
ABSTRACT

Background The prognosis of children with high-grade gliomas is uncertain, even when clinical and histologic findings are considered. We investigated whether mutations in the TP53 gene or the degree of expression of p53 protein in high-grade gliomas is associated with progression-free survival in children with these tumors.

Methods Paraffin-embedded specimens of malignant gliomas from children treated in the Children's Cancer Group study CCG-945 were assessed by mutational analysis of TP53 (121 specimens) and immunohistochemical analysis of p53 (115 specimens). For mutational studies, areas of tissue that contained malignant glioma were isolated by microdissection, and the DNA was subjected to polymerase-chain-reaction–based amplification and sequencing of TP53 exons 5, 6, 7, and 8. Immunohistochemical analysis was performed with the use of a microwave-enhanced antigen retrieval and an antibody that bound both wild-type and mutant p53.

Results We found a significant association between overexpression of p53 and outcome; this association was independent of histologic features, age, sex, the extent of resection, and tumor location. The rate (±SE) of progression-free survival at five years was 44±6 percent in the group of 74 patients whose tumors had low levels of expression of p53 and 17±6 percent in the group of 41 patients whose tumors had overexpression of p53 (P<0.001). A nonsignificant association was observed between mutations in TP53 and outcome.

Conclusions Overexpression of p53 in malignant gliomas during childhood is strongly associated with an adverse outcome, independently of clinical prognostic factors and histologic findings.


Source Information

From the Departments of Neurosurgery (I.F.P.) and Pathology (S.D.F., J.W., J.B., R.L.H.), University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh; the Children's Oncology Group, Arcadia, Calif. (E.J.H.); the Department of Pathology, Ohio State University, Columbus (A.J.Y.); the Department of Biostatistics, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tenn. (J.M.B.); the Department of Pediatrics, New York University Medical Center, New York (J.L.F.); and the Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles (R.S.).

Address reprint requests to Dr. Pollack at the Department of Neurosurgery, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, 3705 Fifth Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15213, or at pollaci{at}chplink.chp.edu.

Full Text of this Article


This article has been cited by other articles:



HOME  |  SUBSCRIBE  |  SEARCH  |  CURRENT ISSUE  |  PAST ISSUES  |  COLLECTIONS  |  PRIVACY  |  TERMS OF USE  |  HELP  |  beta.nejm.org

Comments and questions? Please contact us.

The New England Journal of Medicine is owned, published, and copyrighted © 2009 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.