[Clinical Significance of Serum p53 Antibody Measurement in Colorectal Cancer Patients].

We investigated the significance of serum p53 antibody in colorectal cancer. The subjects included 239 patients with colorectal cancerwithout any history of priortr eatment. Patients with multiple cancerordouble cancerwer e excluded. Serum p53 antibodies and relationships with clinicopathological factors and prognosis were examined. The preoperative positive rate of serum p53 antibody was 28.9%. There was no relationship between p53 antibody and clinicopathological factors or degree of progression. Examination of a possible relationship with prognosis revealed that p53 antibody was not related to whether recurrence occurred, and there was no difference observed for survival rate. Examination of the cases in which serum p53 antibody was measured continuously after curative resection revealed that there was a tendency to find a low incidence of cancer recurrence in cases in which serum p53 antibody became negative postoperatively. Furthermore, cancer recurred at a low incidence in the cases in which p53 antibody was on the decrease postoperatively(p=0.0008). Thus, ourr esults show that serum p53 antibody in colorectal cancer cases is not related to clinicopathological factors or prognosis. However, in cases positive for preoperative serum p53 antibody, changes in postoperative levels of the titer could be a marker for recurrence.