Urinary bladder carcinomas are the most common malignant tumors of the lower urinary tract and are a significant health problem world wide . Prognostic assessment influences the treatment of patients with urinary bladder carcinomas , including decisions about adjuvant therapy . p53 overexpression and the apoptotic index level are associated with the tumor progression and are prognostic factors for this disease .Aim of the study: 1. To evaluate p53 expression in tissue samples of patients having transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) of the urinary bladder and correlate it with other pathological parameters as age , sex of the patient , tumor grade , and tumor stage.2. Investigate the extent of apoptosis in TCC by counting the apoptotic index (AI) on H. stained sections and correlate it with the tumor grade and stage . Materials and methods: Forty seven formalin fixed , paraffin embedded tissue samples were collected retrospectively from the archive files of the department of pathology of Al-Kadhimiya teaching hospital and the main laboratory of the Surgical Specialization hospital for the period from January 2005 to March 2006.The tissue samples were stained immunohistochemically for evaluating p53 expression .