Table 2.
Clinical Evidence for Amyloid-Like or Aggregated p53 in Human Cancers.
| Cancer type | Reference | Detection method | Sample size | Key finding/clinical association | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Breast cancer | Levy et al., 2011 | p53/amyloid/oligomer antibodies | Limited clinical specimens | Mutant p53 co-localized with amyloid-like protein deposits in breast tumor specimens. | Early proof-of-concept evidence for amyloid-like p53 in human cancer; no clinical outcome data. |
| Ovarian cancer | Heinzl et al., 2022 | p53/amyloid/oligomer antibodies and p53-Seprion-ELISA | 30 patients | Compared multiple technologies for detecting p53 aggregates in ovarian cancer tissue. | Methodological validation study but not designed to evaluate prognosis. |
| Ovarian cancer | Iwahashi et al., 2022 | p53/ProteoStat co-localization | 121 patients | Cytoplasmic p53 aggregates were associated with poor clinical prognosis and cisplatin resistance-related phenotypes. | Supports prognostic and functional relevance; retrospective single-institution cohort and selected aggregate-confirmation assays. |
| Ovarian cancer | Heinzl et al., 2023 (OVCAD consortium) | p53-Seprion-ELISA | 81 patients | p53 aggregates were detected and were frequent in tumors with missense TP53 mutations; clinical relevance was evaluated. | Independent external ovarian cancer cohort; assay standardization and mutation/context dependence remain important considerations. |
| Lung cancer | Nishitsuji et al., 2024 | p53/ProteoStat co-localization | 228 patients | Cytoplasmic p53 aggregates were associated with poor clinical prognosis and cisplatin resistance-related phenotypes. | Extends clinical relevance beyond ovarian cancer with larger cohort. |
| Nasopharyngeal cancer | Li et al., 2024 | p53/amyloid/oligomer antibodies | 90 patients | p53 amyloid aggregation was detected; p53-R280T promoted aggregation and impaired p53 nuclear function. | Recent cancer type-specific evidence; functional association is strong, but broader prognostic validation remains limited. |
| Glioma | Wu et al., 2025 | Plasma detection of p53 aggregates by advanced single-molecule/aggregate approaches | 190 patients | Demonstrated feasibility of detecting p53 aggregates in plasma of glioma patients. | Emerging non-tissue diagnostic approach; clinical utility and specificity require further validation. |
ELISA: enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.