CORRELATION OF THE MUTATION OF P53 GENE AND THE POLYMORPHISM AT CODON-72 IN SMOKING-RELATED NONSMALL CELL LUNG-CANCER PATIENTS

The polymorphism of p53 gene at codon 72 consisting of either arginine (Arg)- or proline (Pro)-encoded allele is suggested to be associated with the susceptibility of tobacco-related lung cancer. In this study we examined the polymorphism of 224 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients and that of 303 control persons with a polymerase chain reac tion method and found that Pro-allele carriers were significantly more frequent in those patients who smoked and were affected at a younger age (<65) (P<0.05). We also investigated whether the mutational altera tions of this gene could be influenced by the genotype. The overall mu tation rate of 114 NSCLC patients examined with a single-strand confor mation polymorphism method was 31%, which agreed with previous reports . However, the mutation rate was significantly increased in those pati ents who smoked and were affected at a younger age (<65) (P<0.05). Alt hough the Pro-allele carriers among the smoker patients showed higher mutation rate than the Arg/Arg homozygotes, the difference between the genotypes had marginal significance (0.1<P<0.05) and was statisticall y insignificant, if the study was confined to younger patients. Thus, the present data cannot confirm a possible association of the p53 poly morphism with its mutation rate regarding smoking-related lung cancer.