Romanian Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences
 

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p53 PROTEIN AS A SURVIVAL BIOMARKER IN MYELODYSPLASTIC SYNDROMES: IMMUNOHISTOCHEMICAL MORPHOMETRIC STUDY

ELŐD-ERNŐ NAGY1, CSILLA FINNA2, SMARANDA DEMIAN3, LILIANA CHIRA2, EMŐKE HORVÁTH2*

1.Department of Pharmaceutical Biochemistry, University of Medicine and Pharmacy Targu-Mures, Romania
2.Department of Pathology, University of Medicine and Pharmacy Targu-Mures, Romania
3.Hematologic Clinic 1, Emergency Clinical Hospital, University of Medicine and Pharmacy Targu-Mures, Romania

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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.