p53research®

Lab Location: AKH, Level 8, G1.12

E-Mail: daniela.kandioler@meduniwien.ac.at
Phone: +43 1 40400 56210/68480
Website: www.p53.at

Over- and undertreatment is the main clinical challenge of today’s cancer treatment. To significantly advance cancer survival, we have to identify the most effective treatment for the individual patient.
We claim that the p53 gene could be used as a global predictor for response and resistance to chemotherapy.
The major goal of our projects is to pave the way for routine clinical application of this marker.

Response Prediction

Fifty percent of patients currently do not benefit from standard cancer treatment. P53 is crucially involved in pathways determining cell death in response to treatment, and is at the same time the most frequently mutated gene in human cancer. Thus, a defect in the p53 pathway causes resistance to chemotherapy and radiation.
During the last years, we could consistently demonstrate the relation between the p53 genotype and response to cancer therapies in different tumours.

Prognosis

Prognostic factors influence treatment decisions, estimating the likelihood of recovering from disease or the chance of the disease coming back.
In cancer patients, the most important, clinically used prognostic factor is the involvement of lymph nodes.

Lymph nodes that are staged microscopically as tumour free can be analysed more precisely using molecular techniques. A p53 mutation of the primary cancer can serve as marker to search for micrometastases in lymph nodes.

Methodological Research

Due to uncoordinated application of different, insensitive p53 analysis methods and lack of standards, the literature appears to be inconsistent concerning the prognostic and predictive value of p53. Our research projects are based on complete sequencing of the p53 gene and therefore provide most sensitive and specific information concerning the p53 genotype.