Comparison of Immunofluorometry and Immunohistochemistry for the Detection of p53 Protein in Lung Cancer Specimens

Although immunohistochemical techniques are widely used to demonstrate the presence of mutant p53 protein in a wide variety of malignant tissues, quantitative enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)-type immunoassays offer some advantages. In this study we compared immunohistochemistry, performed on formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded sections of 91 primary lung tumor tissues, with a highly sensitive quantitative two-site immunofluorometric assay, on extracts of fresh-frozen specimens from adjacent regions of the same tissues. Monoclonal DO-7 antibody, and the related monoclonal DO-1 with polyclonal CM-1 antibodies, were used for immunostaining and ELISA, respectively. Concentrations of p53 were expressed relative to total protein, while an immunostaining score reflected the proportion of stained malignant cells, intensity of staining, and tumor cellularity. Strong concordance was shown between the two methods by Spearman correlation (P < .001), Wilcoxon rank sum (P < .001), and contingency table (P < .001) analyses. The use of ELISA-type assays for p53 quantification in lung tumor tissues may be an alternative to the more labor-intensive histologic techniques.