Apoptosis and schizophrenia: is the tumour suppressor gene, p53, a candidate susceptibility gene?

This paper reviews the six published incidence studies of the relative risk of cancer in patients with schizophrenia compared with the general populat ion. These studies used: incidence data, register case ascertainment, and c ontrolled for age and sex. It is concluded that schizophrenia is associated with a lower risk of developing cancer. The role of apoptosis (programmed cell death) in cancer and brain development is briefly described. The possi bility is explored that increased apoptosis may account for neurodevelopmen tal abnormalities as well as tumour resistance associated with schizophreni a. The authors propose that p53, a tumour suppressor gene central to regula tion of apoptosis, should be investigated as a candidate susceptibility gen e in schizophrenia. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.