Abstracts from the sixth meeting of the international association of pancreatology, November 2–4, 1994, Chicago, IL (original) (raw)

Mutations of the p53 tumor suppressor gene are quite common in pancreatic cancer. In l 7% of the patients with cancer of the pancreas autoantibodies, directed again.st this mutated nucleus protein (and-p53-Ab), are detectable. The aim of our study was to determine, whether the presence of and-p53-Ab has an influence in the development of distant metastases. Methods: Sere of 130 patients suffering from pancreatic carcinoma were tested for anti-p53-Ab via ELISA and immunoblorting using recombinant p53-protein as a target. These patients were classified according to UICC-criteria: stage I: 14%, stage II: 5%, stage III: 48% and stage IV: 32%. Results: In 22 patients anti-p53-Ab were detectable (stage I: 11%, stage II: 5%, stage III: 74% and stage IV: 1t%). Only 2./21 had liver metastases, Comparing primary tumor expansion (T3) with occurrence of liver metastases, we found that in the anti-p53-Ab negative group 65% of the patients with T3-mmor had liver metastases, whereas in the anti-p53-Ab positive group only 17% had liver metastases. Conclusion: Autoantibodies directed against p53 occur in 16% of patients with pancreatic cancer. The presence of these autoantibodies seems to have a protective function for the development of liver metastases. Further studies comparing anti-p53-Ab status with survival times and disease free suv:ival are in progress.