Objectives: To perform a systematic review on the expression and prognostic value of the p 53 oncoprotein and Ki 67 proliferation marker in transitional cell carcinoma of the upper urinary tract.
Methods: A systematic review of cohort, prospective and retrospective studies from 1/1/1990 to 11/24/2003 has been undertaken, performing a bibliographic search both manual and electronic in the main databases. 632 works were found using the keywords "ureter, renal and pelvis tumor", and 14 with "ureter, renal and pelvis tumor, and immunohistochemical".
Results: 509 patients were studied; they were selected from 7 retrospective studies about the usefulness of p53 and Ki 67 in transitional cell carcinoma of the upper urinary tract published between 1995 and 2002 (three Spanish studies, three Japanese and one North American). Each one analyzes between 37 and 121 cases, with a mean age of 66.8 years (range 63.0-74.7) and a predominance of male sex in 100% of the studies. The pyelocalyceal site was the most frequent in these series. Treatment is another issue taken into consideration in this papers, being nephroureterectomy the most frequently found. The p53 and Ki 67 percentage expression in various studies has been related to clinical and histological factors. Only 5 studies performed a multivariate analysis using Cox regression models. Three of them deal with Ki 67 and two with p53, although one of the p53 studies associates cyclin E determinations. Only two out of three studies about Ki 67 were considered evaluable, because multivariate analysis was not performed in the other one.
Conclusions: 1) There are a few studies and they are very heterogeneous in terms of design, selection criteria, follow-up, and use of prognostic variables. 2) The analyzed studies establish that oncoprotein p53 and proliferation marker Ki 67 are prognostic factors for transitional cell carcinoma of the upper urinary tract, and 3) To perform a meta-analysis was deemed not indicated because of the heterogeneicity of the studies found in our search.