p53 single nucleotide polymorphisms and bladder cancer

Two p53 germline polymorphisms, a BstUI in exon 4 and a MspI in intron 6 we re studied using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based methods in 50 patien ts with bladder cancer and 145 healthy controls. Increased frequencies of t he BstUI and MspI A2 alleles were found to be associated with statistically non-significant (p = 0.2308 and p = 0.5959) but increased odd ratios for b ladder cancel (OR 1.44, 95% CI 0.82-2.27 and OR 1.20, 95% CI 0.61-2.33). St atistically significant difference between patients with bladder cancer and controls was found in the distribution of MspI genotypes. There was a sign ificantly lower proportion of the heterozygous A1A2 genotype in all patient s but not in controls (p = 0.0354). The results of this study suggest that BstUI and MspI germline polymorphisms of the tumor suppressor gene p53 marg inally modify the risk of bladder cancer.