p53 PROTEIN AS A SURVIVAL BIOMARKER IN MYELODYSPLASTIC
SYNDROMES: IMMUNOHISTOCHEMICAL MORPHOMETRIC STUDY
ELŐD-ERNŐ NAGY1, CSILLA FINNA2, SMARANDA DEMIAN3, LILIANA CHIRA2, EMŐKE HORVÁTH2*
1Department of Pharmaceutical Biochemistry, University of Medicine and Pharmacy Targu-Mures, Romania
2Department of Pathology, University of Medicine and Pharmacy Targu-Mures, Romania
3Hematologic Clinic 1, Emergency Clinical Hospital, University of Medicine and Pharmacy Targu-Mures, Romania
*corresponding author: horvath_emoke@yahoo.com
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Abstract:
Patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) show highly variable clinical course. The average overall survival is 15-30
months, and the risk of acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) transformation is 25-30% after five years. The molecular
mechanisms of leukemic progression and transformation are still incompletely understood. TP53 mutation frequency in MDS
is 5-10%, these being associated to all clinical forms of the disease, determining a shorter overall survival. The objective of
our study was to evaluate the relationship of p53 protein expression with survival and AML transformation in MDS patients.
We quantified the p53 levels by the means of immunohistochemical staining and a digital morphometric approach in MDS
bone marrow biopsy specimens. In our cohort, a higher p53 protein expression was observed in the high leukemic
transformation risk group. p53 expression, together with the bone marrow blast count, proved to be a significant risk
predictor when analysing survival.

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