A STUDY OF EXPRESSION OF P53 IN PREMALIGNANT AND MALIGNANT LESIONS OF UTERINE CERVIX

Carcinoma of the uterine cervix is one of the leading causes of mortality in women worldwide(1,2). There are primary and secondary biomarkers in cervical carcinoma. The primary marker being HPV DNA and secondary markers like p53, c-fos, p50, fra 1, p16, notch 1, rb and telomerase. The secondary marker p53 has been found to be helping in differentiating neoplastic from non-neoplastic and CIN lesions in various studies(3). Thus, it may be used as a marker of prognostication for the patients with cervical lesions(4). The current study was aimed to analyze p53 expression in malignant and premalignant epithelial lesions of the uterine cervix and to correlate p53 expression with histological types and grades of carcinoma cervix. Out of 60 cases included in this study, p53 positivity was observed in 85% of the cases, excluding CIN-II and CIN-III. CIS and invasive SCC exhibited positive p53 expression. Higher tumor stages showed increased p53 expression. Statistically signicant associations were found between p53 positivity and microscopic type, clinical stage, and grade of cervical carcinoma. Further studies with larger sample sizes and patient follow-up are warranted to investigate the correlation of p53 expression with clinicopathological parameters. Such research could facilitate the development of p53-targeted therapy for cervical carcinoma.