P53 MUTATIONS AND OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURES IN A SURGICAL SERIES OF LUNGCANCERS

p53 mutations are frequent in malignant lung tumors, Of 88 surgically treated lung cancers from cigarette smokers previously evaluated for p 53 mutations, 45 tumors (51.1%) had mutations in exons 5-8 (D. G. Guin ee, Jr, ef al., Carcinogenesis (Lend.), 16: 993-1002, 1995), We report here the examination of 13 occupational exposures and 13 high-risk oc cupations in relation to these p53 mutations, Two molecular abnormalit ies were associated with occupational exposures: (a) G:C-->T:A transve rsions on the coding (nontranscribed) strand (n = 13) were associated with chromate exposure and employment in the metal industry (P < 0.05) and marginally associated with nickel exposure (P = 0.056); and (b) G :C-->A:T transitions at non-CpG sites (n = 9) were associated with wor k in the petrochemical industry (P = 0.05), No association was found b etween p53 mutations and gender, cigarette pack-years, tumor histology , age at diagnosis, or family history of lung cancer, Because all thre e chromate-exposed subjects had large cell carcinomas exhibiting G: C- ->T:A coding-strand transversions, follow-up of a cohort with this exp osure should clarify the association with the p53 gene.