To investigate the relationship of p53 overexpression with clinicopathological factors and prognosis, we examined p53 expression in 257 colorectal adenocarcinomas by immunohistochemistry using monoclonal antibody DO-1. Nuclear p53 staining was detected in 113 tumors. p53 overexpression was increased in DNA non-diploid tumors (p=0.004) and in the tumors with higher proliferative activity (p=0.02). Overexpression of p53 predicted unfavorable prognosis in patients with Dukes B tumors in both univariate (p=0.02) and multivariate analyses including DNA ploidy (p=0.04). No correlation was found between p53 expression and patient sex and age, tumor site, stage, differentiation or growth pattern. Our results indicate that p53 overexpression detected by antibody DO-I might be a useful tool in optimizing care of patients with Dukes B tumors.

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