p53 inactivating mutations in Chinese breast carcinomas

While previous reports on breast cancers indicate that Caucasian women have a low frequency of p53 mutations, higher frequencies of mutations are repo rted in some Japanese populations. There are few reports regarding p53 muta tions in Chinese breast carcinomas. Using a previously established sensitiv e p53 yeast functional assay, we screened 23 Chinese breast carcinomas for mutations. The p53 was mutated in 5/23 (21.7%) specimens. Two of these muta tions were detected in exon 5 and one was detected in each of exons 6, 7 an d 8. All of these mutations have previously been shown to be mutated in Cau casian and Japanese breast cancers, but two have not previously been observ ed in Chinese breast cancers and one has also not been observed in Japanese .