[Association of p53 gene polymorphism with susceptibility to ovarian cancer]

To investigate the association of p53 codon 72 and p53 intron 3 (PIN3) polymorphism with susceptibility to epithelial ovarian cancer in northern Chinese women.

p53 codon 72 and PIN3 genotyping was performed by DNA fragments with sequence specific primers among 124 patients with ovarian cancer and 128 healthy control women.

The frequency of the Pro and Arg allele among ovarian cancer patients and healthy controls were 53.2%, 46.8% and 46.1%, 53.9%. No significant difference in distribution of allelotype was shown between the two groups (chi(2) = 2.563, P = 0.109). The genotype frequencies of Pro/Pro, Pro/Arg, and Arg/Arg among ovarian cancer and healthy controls were 29.0%, 48.4%, 22.6% and 21.1%, 50.0%, 28.9% respectively. No significant difference was shown between the cases and controls (chi(2) = 2.598, P = 0.273). When the epithelial ovarian cancer patients were grouped according to the pathological characteristics, no significant difference was observed between the patients with serous cystadenocarcinoma or endometrioid carcinoma and the control group or between the two carcinoma groups for p53 codon 72 Pro/Arg (P > 0.05). When the epithelial ovarian cancer patients were divided into two subgroups according to the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) standard, there was a significant difference between the early group (I approximately II) and the late group (III approximately IV) for Arg allelotype and Arg/Arg genotype (chi(2) = 7.494, P = 0.006 and chi(2) = 8.318, P = 0.004). The frequency of A, A'allelotype among ovarian cancer patients and healthy controls was 94.8%, 5.2% and 94.5%, 5.5%, no significant difference was shown between two groups (chi(2) = 0.013, P = 0.91). The genotype frequency of AA, AA', A'A' was not significantly different between the ovarian cancer and healthy controls (chi(2) = 0.301, P = 0.583). There was no significant difference in the frequencies of allelotypes and genotypes between patients with serous systadenocarcinoma and those with endometrioid carcinoma and between patients with ovarian cancers and the control subjects (all P > 0.05). The frequencies of allelotypes and genotypes were not significantly different between early and late ovarian cancers (chi(2) = 0.014, P = 0.906 and chi(2) = 0.137, P = 0.711).

In northern Chinese women, p53 codon 72 Pro/Arg and p53 PIN3 gene polymorphisms are not associated with development of ovarian cancer. Arg/Arg genotype may be used as a stratification marker according to the standards of FIGO for ovarian cancer.