title: Homozygosity for Pro of p53 Arg72Pro as a potential risk factor for hepatocellular carcinoma in Chinese population.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Codon 72 exon 4 polymorphism (Arg72Pro) of the p53 gene has been implicated in cancer risk. Our objective was to investigate the possible association between p53 Arg72Pro polymorphism and susceptibility to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) among Chinese population.
  
  
  METHODS
  The p53 Arg72Pro genotypes were determined by PCR-based restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis in 507 HCC cases and 541 controls. Odds ratios (ORs) for HCC and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) from unconditional logistic regression models were used to evaluate relative risks. Potential risk factors were included in the logistic regression models as covariates in the multivariate analyses on genotype and HCC.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The frequencies for Pro and Arg alleles were 44.5%, 55.5% in HCC cases, and 40.3% and 59.7% in controls, respectively. The Pro allele was significantly associated with the presence of HCC (P = 0.05) and had a higher risk for HCC (OR = 1.19, 95% CI 1.00-1.41) as compared with the Arg allele. After adjusted for potential risk factors, Arg/Pro heterozygotes had an 1.21-fold increased risk (95% CI 0.82-1.78, P = 0.34) of HCC compared with Arg homozygotes, whereas the risk for Pro homozygotes was 1.79 (95% CI 1.06-3.01, P = 0.03) times higher than that for Arg homozygotes. Pro-allele carriers had a higher relative risk of HCC than the Arg-only carriers (adjusted OR = 1.33, 95% CI 0.92-1.92, P = 0.13), although the difference was not statistically significant.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Homozygosity for Pro of p53 Arg72Pro is potentially one of the genetic risk factors for HCC in Chinese population. The p53 Arg72Pro polymorphism may be used as a stratification marker in screening individuals at a high risk of HCC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200438, China.
authors.forename: Zhong-Zheng
authors.initials: ZZ
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Wen-Ming
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Cong
authors.forename: Shu-Fang
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.forename: Guan-Shan
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Meng-Chao
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Wu
mesh_terms: D019943:Amino Acid Substitution; D001120:Arginine; D001483:Base Sequence; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics*; D002681:China; D017931:DNA Primers; D005787:Gene Frequency; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics*; D020125:Mutation, Missense; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide / Q000235:genetics; D011392:Proline; D012307:Risk Factors; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53; D001120:Arginine; D011392:Proline