ΔNp63 expression associates with poor survival in ovarian cancer.

B206 P63 belongs to the “p53 family” which role in cancer progression has been recently revisited in light of the plethora of splicing variants that are generated. The hypothesis is that the TA isoforms share “p53 like” properties while the ΔN isoforms act in a dominant negative fashion. The aim of this study was to measure the levels of TAp63 and its truncated variant ΔNp63 in a cohort of 169 ovarian cancer patients with different grade and stage to unravel the hypothesis that different levels of TAp63 and ΔNp63 can be associated with survival. We examined by real time RT-PCR the expression pattern of both TAp63 and ΔNp63 in 83 stage I ovarian cancer patients, characterised by a good survival and in 86 stage III ovarian cancer patients characterised by poor survival. Data suggest that the TAp63 levels between stage I and stage III were comparable, while in stage III we observed an increase in the levels of ΔNp63 of 77 folds. This is independent of the mutational status of the p53 gene but is strongly associated with poor overall survival. In conclusion data reported in this study, the largest to author’s knowledge in ovarian cancer, do strongly suggest to go further in investigating the role of p63 and its variants in tumor progression of ovarian cancer as a potential biomarker to predict patients outcome and in perspective therapy response. This would have particularly clinical relevance in ovarian cancer where the high rate of mortality reflects our lack of knowledge of molecular mechanisms underlying cell progression towards malignancy