Association between p53 Status and Breast Cancer Molecular Subtypes in the Academic Hospital of Universitas Gadjah Mada

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer and the leading cause of mortality in women. The p53 pathway is crucial for cell cycle regulation and tumor development. Alterations in the p53 are associated with increased aggressiveness of cancer cells. This cross-sectional study explored the association between p53 status and the molecular subtypes of invasive breast cancer in patients at the Academic Hospital of Universitas Gadjah Mada from 2016 to 2024. Immunohistochemical analysis was conducted to evaluate the presence of mutant p53 in primary tumor specimens. Of the p53-negative tumors in this study, 4 patients were triple-negative breast cancer. No association was observed between p53 expression and molecular subtype, with p-values of 0.16 and 0.224. In contrast, a significant correlation was noted between p53 and Ki67 expression, resulting in a coefficient of 0.513 (p=0.009). Additionally, a notable correlation of 0.531 was found between p53 expression and tumor size (p=0.006). In conclusion, tumor size is a crucial parameter for determining patient prognosis; specifically, as tumor size increases, p53 expression also rises, leading to a worse prognosis.