Role of p53 and Ki-67 immunomarkers in carcinoma of urinary bladder

Urothelial carcinoma is common urinary malignancy responsible for a significant proportion of cancer morbidity and mortality. We carried out the present study to demonstrate the clinicohistopathological features and to correlate the p53 and Ki-67 immunoexpression with grade and stage of bladder carcinomas.

We investigated 110 cases of bladder tumor. Grading and staging were done according to the WHO-2004 and American Joint Committee on Cancer-TNM staging recommendations. Immunohistochemical staining for p53 and Ki-67 was performed in all the cases, categorized as high and low expression taking 20% positivity as cutoff value. Statistical analysis was done using McNemar's Chi-square test and Fisher's exact test.

There were 61 cases of high grade and 49 cases of low grade exhibiting urothelial carcinoma as the most common variant (97.3%). Muscle invasive carcinomas (pT2) noted in 29 cases whereas 23 and 58 cases revealed stage pTa and pT1, respectively. Evaluation of p53 and Ki-67 immunoexpression showed a significant association with histological grade and stage individually and also in combination (P < 0.05).

Our results corroborate with the opinion that combined use of p53 and Ki-67 immunomarkers may provide additional prognostic information along with histological grading and staging in bladder carcinomas.

Indian journal of pathology & microbiology. 0000 Jan [Epub]

Brijesh Thakur, Sanjeev Kishore, Kanika Dutta, Sanjay Kaushik, Aparna Bhardwaj

Department of Pathology, SGRRIM and HS, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India.