Association of p53 Codon 72 Polymorphism with Risk of Hypopharyngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma in Taiwan

Twu, Chih-Wen; Jiang, Rong-San; Shu, Chih-Hung; Lin, Jin-Ching

doi:10.1016/S0929-6646(09)60330-2

Next »Journal of the Formosan Medical Association
Volume 105, Issue 2 , Pages 99-104, 2006

Association of p53 Codon 72 Polymorphism with Risk of Hypopharyngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma in Taiwan

Chih-Wen Twu
- Institute of Clinical Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei
- Department of Otolaryngology, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Rong-San Jiang
- Department of Otolaryngology, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Chih-Hung Shu
- Department of Otolaryngology, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Jin-Ching Lin
- Institute of Clinical Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei
- Department of Radiation Oncology, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan, R.O.C.
- Department of Radiation Oncology, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, Tainan, Taiwan, R.O.C.
- Correspondence to: Dr. Jin-Ching Lin, Department of Radiation Oncology, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, 160, Section 3, Taichung-Kang Road, Taichung 407, Taiwan, R.O.C.

Received 31 March 2005; received in revised form 2 May 2005; accepted 7 June 2005.

Background

p53 polymorphism at codon 72 is a known risk marker for various malignancies, but it has not been studied in hypopharyngeal cancer. This study investigated the genotype distribution of p53 codon 72 polymorphism in hypopharyngeal cancer patients and non-cancer controls matched for age, gender, alcohol consumption and smoking habit.

Methods

Genomic DNA was extracted from peripheral blood cells of 53 patients with hypopharyngeal cancer and 53 non-cancer controls. Codon 72 polymorphism of p53 was identified by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism.

Results

Patients with hypopharyngeal cancer had higher frequencies of Pro/Pro (26.4% vs. 13.2%) and Pro/Arg (51.0% vs. 45.3%) but lower frequencies of Arg/Arg (22.6% vs. 45.1%) compared to controls. Compared to Arg/Arg genotypes, Pro/Pro genotypes had a relative risk of hypopharyngeal cancer of 3.667 (95% confidence interval, 1.16-11.56; p = 0.03). As a group, patients with Pro/Pro or Arg/Pro who were carriers of the Pro allele had a higher relative risk of hypopharyngeal cancer compared to Arg homozygous carriers (odds ratio, 2.415; 95% confidence interval, 1.04-5.64; p = 0.04).