Correlation Between Serum Levels of p53 During Radiotherapy in Cervical Cancer Patients

Abstract

Cervical cancer is the fourth largest for both incidence and mortality in females due to lack of proper diagnosis in early stages of cancer. Therefore, identification of serum biomarkers could help in earlier diagnosis and chances to improve the survival of cervical cancer patients. In this regard, we studied the levels of circulating p53 protein in cancer patients’ serum during the radiation therapy which is widely used method to treat cervical cancer. p53 is a tumor suppressor protein and is associated with genetic changes of the cell. It has a vital role in cell cycle and apoptosis during cell mutations. We examined the relationship between the levels of circulating p53 protein and radiotherapy. Our hypothesis was to prove p53 protein as a biomarker for clinical response to radiotherapy of cervical cancer patients’. Five cervical cancer patients’ were enrolled for the study and blood samples were collected from them before, during and after the radiation treatment. Post-radiotherapy, patients’ clinical response to radiotherapy was determined from the expression of p53 protein using Western blot method. For all the samples, the elevation of p53 protein was not observed in serum. As a preliminary study our results revealed that there was no correlation between serum levels of p53 protein and radiotherapy clinical response, as no band was observed on the transfer membrane after blotting.