Association of P53 Codon 72 Polymorphism with Ovarian Cancer: An Institutional Study

Polymorphism of P53 gene has been explored worldwide to know the genetic predisposition of ovarian cancer, however.literature reports inconsistent association between codon 72 polymorphism and ovarian cancer risk.Several studies have reported a higher incidence of ovarian cancer associated with the Pro variant, while others found non-significant association. Present study has been conducted to investigate the association of codon 72 polymorphism of p53 gene with ovarian cancer risk in Asian population and to correlate them with clinicopathological characteristics of patients.

The study was conducted on 60 ovarian cancer patients and  60 healthy women..Single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) G>C (Arg>Pro) transition at codon 72 of exon 4 (rs1042522) in the P53 gene Has been analysed.DNA was extracted by using the DNA Sure Blood Mini Kit (GeNei TM).The genetic polymorphism in P53 genes was assessed by Allele-specific polymerase chain reaction(ASO-PCR).X2,Fisher exact test and odds ratio[0R] at 95% confidence interval [CI]) were used for statistical analysis.

The distribution of Arg/Arg, Arg/Pro and Pro/Pro genotype of codon 72 of theP53 gene was 30%,50%, and 20% in the ovarian cancer patients and 60%,31.6%, and 8.3%, respectively in healthy individuals. Increased frequency of Pro/Pro allele.  was associated with the risk of ovarian cancer as revealed by statistically significant values at p-0.003.(OR=4.8;95%CI 1.46-15.72). Patients who expressed P53 proline allele might be at higher risk of developing ovarian cancer as compared with those who expressed P53 Arg allele (p= 0.003).However small sample size is the limitation of present study.Analysis of bigger group of ovarian cancer patients may robust the genetic predisposition of P53 codon 72 in ovarian carcinogenesis.

Genetic predisposition of proline allele of P53 gene in ovarian carcinoma might be explored as early diagnostic marker of ovarian cancer and to go ahead towards gene-targeted drug therapy for better clinical outcome as well as to reduce mortality.