Abstract
Alterations in the p53 tumor suppressor gene appear to be important in the development of many human tumors. The wild-type p53 gene has a polymorphism at codon 72 that presents the arginine (CGC) or proline (CCC) genotype, which recently has been reported to be associated with genetically determined susceptibility to smoking-related lung cancers. To determine whether this p53 genotype influences individual risk of urologic cancer and/or its progression, we used polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) analysis to assay the allelic frequencies of this polymorphism in 85 renal cell carcinoma patients, 151 urothelial cancer patients, 33 testicular cancer patients, 28 prostatic cancer patients and 56 patients without neoplastic disease. The allelic distributions of the three genotypes (Arg/Arg, Arg/Pro, Pro/Pro) in patients with renal cell carcinoma (29.4%, 55.3%, 15.3%), urothelial cancers (45.7%, 39.7%, 14.6%), testicular cancer (45.4%, 48.5%, 6.1%) or prostate cancer (42.9%, 50.0%, 7.1%) did not differ significantly from those in the normal controls. However, Pro/Pro genotype in renal cell carcinoma and urothelial cancer (smoking-related cancers) was more frequent than that in prostate cancer and testicular cancer (smoking-unrelated cancers) with borderline significance (P = 0.0881). There was no particular correlation between frequency of the three genotypes and grade or stage of each type of tumor. The association of genetic predisposition to urologic cancers with p53 gene codon 72 polymorphism is not so clear as the previous study of Japanese lung cancer patients, but this polymorphism may play some role in urothelial cancers and renal cell carcinoma, in which smoking is an epidemiological risk factor.