title: p53 expression and mutations in squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck: expression correlates with the patients' use of tobacco and alcohol.
abstract: 53 expression was assessed in 93 head and neck squamous cell carcinoma patients using CM-1, DO-7, and DO-1 antibodies. Sixty eight percent was found to have positive nuclear staining. The frequency of p53 mutations were investigated in 13 patients using single-stranded conformational polymorphism (SSCP) analysis of DNA fragments that had been amplified by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). P53 gene mutations were analyzed by SSCP in exons 4 to 7 of 13 patients, and nine were found to have mutations in exon 4; two of these patients also had a mutation in exon 5. In the group of 93 patients, p53 overexpression was found to correlate with the patients' history of heavy smoking (p < 0.01). We also analyzed the drinking and smoking history of 71 of these patients by logistic regression analysis and found that heavy smoking correlates with p53 overexpression (p < 0.05), but heavy drinking was not found to be significant. However when both smoking and drinking histories were assessed together, a correlation was found (p < 0.05). Future work may indicate that specific p53 mutations are associated with patients who have a history of heavy drinking and smoking.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Dental Sciences, University of Liverpool.
authors.forename: J K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Field
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Zoumpourlis
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Spandidos
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Jones
mesh_terms: D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000009:adverse effects; D001483:Base Sequence; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000401:mortality; D016158:Genes, p53 / Q000235:genetics*; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000401:mortality; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics*; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects; D016019:Survival Analysis; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / Q000032:analysis* / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53