Breast cancer awareness.
Nicknamed the "guardian of the genome," TP53 determines if a cell is too damaged to be repaired and must therefore undergo cell death (apoptosis). Mutations in TP53 are the most common mutation found in cancers. Mutation means that the ability to "guard the genome" is lost, and therefore the fate of the cell is no longer controlled, and damaged cells can continue to divide.
Breast Cancer
Breast cancer is not a single disease, as several varieties exist. However, breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in women.
Prognostic Markers
Prognostic markers are important in determining what treatment is required. A number of prognostic markers have been determined for breast cancer: a person's age and whether she is still having periods, the size of the tumor, if cancer is in the lymph nodes, if the cancer has spread to other organs, the type of cancer, how different it is from normal tissue (tissue grade) and the expression of certain proteins on the tumor cells (hormone receptor expression).
TP53 and Prognosis
Over half of all breast cancers show a mutated TP53 gene. Mutations in TP53 have been linked with a poor prognosis in breast cancer independent of other prognostic markers. However, a number of different mutations in TP53 have been found in breast cancer, and these different mutations can also influence prognosis.
Detecting Mutations
TP53 mutations can only be detected in the laboratory on tissue taken from cancer cells. Either the protein (which detects some mutations) is studied, or the whole gene (which detects all mutations) is examined.
TP53 and Chemotherapy
Mutated TP53 can also affect the response that the breast cancer has to chemotherapy treatment. In the future, treatment options may depend on the presence and type of TP53 mutations found in the cancer.
Tags: breast cancer, have been, Mutations TP53, different mutations, most common
