Immunohistochemical detection of p53 in differentiated, poorly differentiated and undifferentiated carcinomas of the thyroid

In an attempt to find whether or not p53 immunoreactivity in the thyroid gland is restricted to undifferentiated carcinomas and to evaluate the putative prognostic usefulness of its detection, we investigated p53 immunoreactivity in a series of 14 benign thyroid lesions and 65 thyroid carcinomas (12 papillary; six minimally invasive follicular; four widely invasive follicular; 31 poorly differentiated and 12 undifferentiated tumours). Unequivocal nuclear immunostaining for p53 was observed in two widely invasive follicular carcinoma (20.0%), five poorly differentiated carcinomas (16.1%) and in 10 undifferentiated carcinomas (83.3%). The percentage of immunoreactive cells was much smaller in the former groups than in undifferentiated carcinomas. Despite a trend to a more aggressive behaviour of the p53 immunoreactive cases no significant differences in the outcome of patients with positive and negative tumours was found when the comparison was made within each category of carcinomas. We conclude that p53 immunoreactivity can be detected both in undifferentiated carcinomas and in some differentiated and poorly differentiated thyroid carcinomas. Larger series of cases are necessary to evaluate the prognostic usefulness of this finding.

[1]  U. Veronesi,et al.  p53 as an independent prognostic marker in lymph node-negative breast cancer patients. , 1993, Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

[2]  M. Newton,et al.  A molecular genetic model of human bladder carcinogenesis. , 1993, Seminars in cancer biology.

[3]  T. Seyama,et al.  Genetic Alterations in Thyroid Tumor Progression: Association with p53 Gene Mutations , 1993, Japanese journal of cancer research : Gann.

[4]  M. Pierotti,et al.  Gene p53 mutations are restricted to poorly differentiated and undifferentiated carcinomas of the thyroid gland. , 1993, The Journal of clinical investigation.

[5]  T. Oyama,et al.  Overexpression of p53 as a Possible Prognostic Factor in Human Thyroid Carcinoma , 1993, The American journal of surgical pathology.

[6]  M. Papotti,et al.  Poorly Differentiated Thyroid Carcinomas with Primordial Cell Component: A Group of Aggressive Lesions Sharing Insular, Trabecular,and Solid Patterns , 1993, The American journal of surgical pathology.

[7]  J. Fagin,et al.  High prevalence of mutations of the p53 gene in poorly differentiated human thyroid carcinomas. , 1993, The Journal of clinical investigation.

[8]  Takesada Mori,et al.  p53 Gene Mutations Associated with Anaplastic Transformation of Human Thyroid Carcinomas , 1992, Japanese journal of cancer research : Gann.

[9]  T. Sano,et al.  Role of p53 mutations in endocrine tumorigenesis: mutation detection by polymerase chain reaction-single strand conformation polymorphism. , 1992, Cancer research.

[10]  D. Wynford‐Thomas.  P53 in tumour pathology: Can we trust immunocytochemistry? , 1992, The Journal of pathology.

[11]  T. Seyama,et al.  Unique association of p53 mutations with undifferentiated but not with differentiated carcinomas of the thyroid gland. , 1992, Cancer research.

[12]  N. Lemoine,et al.  Mutation of the p53 gene in a differentiated human thyroid carcinoma cell line, but not in primary thyroid tumours. , 1991, Oncogene.

[13]  B. Vogelstein,et al.  p53 gene mutations occur in combination with 17p allelic deletions as late events in colorectal tumorigenesis. , 1990, Cancer research.

[14]  F. Wyllie,et al.  Structure and expression of nuclear oncogenes in multi-stage thyroid tumorigenesis. , 1989, British Journal of Cancer.

[15]  K. Franssila,et al.  Thyroglobulin immunostaining in follicular thyroid carcinoma: relationship to the degree of differentiation and cell type , 1988, Histopathology.

[16]  J. Rosai,et al.  Poorly differentiated (“insular”) thyroid carcinoma: A reinterpretation of Langhans' “wuchernde Struma” , 1984, The American journal of surgical pathology.