A pilot study of recurrence of human glial tumours in light of p53 heterozygosity status

Genetic alterations in the p53 tumour suppressor gene of human chromosome 17 have been frequently found to be associated with various tumours. Glial tumours arise from the supporting cells of the brain. They have a poor outcome and often recur. The present study was undertaken to compare the loss of heterozygosity (LOH) of p53 gene in pairs of primary and recurrent gliomas and to try and correlate it to the degree of malignancy and recurrence interval. LOH of p53 was taken as an indicator of the inactivation of p53 due to genetic changes. Ten patients with recurrent gliomas were studied. Three patients had LOH at primary surgery and two of these had LOH at recurrent surgery. One patient had LOH of p53 only at recurrent surgery but not at primary surgery. No indicative correlation was found between p53 heterozygosity status on one hand and grade of malignancy (primary and recurrent) and recurrence interval on the other.