Immunohistochemical Expression of P53 in Colorectal Tumors among Sudanese Patients

Previous studies have suggested that p53 immunostaining may provide useful prognostic data in colorectal cancer. The aim of the study was to detect the immunohistochemical expression of p53 tumor marker in colorectal tumors among Sudanese patients. Retrospective analytical case control study design was used in this study. Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue block samples from 150 colorectal tumor patients including 100 malignant tissue blocks and 50 benign tissue blocks of colorectal tumors from Ibn Sina Hospital and Soba Teaching Hospital at Khartoum stat were analyzed for P53 using Immunohistochemical detection. The Immunohistochemical expression of p53 was positive in 61 % of malignant tumor tissues, while none of the benign tumor samples was positive for this marker with significant relation between immunohistochemical expression and histopathological diagnosis (p= 0.000). The majority of samples with p35 expression were either moderately differentiated tumors or well differentiated tumors (63.5 % and 61 % respectively) while only 50 % of samples were classified as poorly differentiated tumors with no significant relation between the immunohistochemical expression of p53 and cancer grade (p= 0.776). Conclusion Immunohistochemical expression of P53 was exclusively detected in colorectal malignant tumors providing a useful marker for the carcinogenesis of colorectal tumors. However, immunohistochemical expression of P53 did not affect histological grade of tumors and cannot be used for grading and hence prognosis. Several other markers are needed to be used in combination with p53 to improve colorectal tumor diagnosis among Sudanese.