The evaluaton of prevalence rate of p53 antigen expression in cutaneous malignant melanoma and it′s relation to tumor thickness

P53 tumor suppressor gene mutation is one of the most common genetic alteration in human malignancies. This study was done to determine the prevalence of the P53 antigen expression by sex, age, type of melanoma, thickness of the lesion and site of the antigen expression either cytoplasmic or nuclear. Paraffin embeded block of 50 patients (45 primary and metastatic)with documented diagnosis of melanoma deparaffinized and immuno stained with DO-7 monoclonal antibody. The lesions were divided depending on the degree of the staining as follow: 1. no staining, 2. mild (less than 10%), 3. moderate (10%-50% staining), 4. severe (more than 50%). Fifty four percent of evaluated patients were female and 46% were male. Forty percent of lesions were graded as no staining, 36% of lesions showed mild staining, 14% moderate and 10% severe staining site of expression was excusively in the cytoplasm. There was no meaningful statistical deference between severity of staining and the age group, sex, type and thickness of melanoma. (p value was 0.532, 0.488, 0.626, 0.954 respectively).