Malignant melanoma is a highly aggressive cancer that retains functional p53 and p73, and drug unresponsiveness largely depends on defects in death pathways after epigenetic gene silencing in conjunction with an imbalanced p73/DNp73 ratio.
We evaluated the clinicopathologic significance of p53 gene mutations, including a comparison of DNA analysis and immunohistochemical examination, in Japanese patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, a highly aggressive cancer.