© 2007 Foundation for Promotion of Cancer Research
Association of the TP53 Codon 72 Polymorphism with Colorectal Cancer in a Chinese Population
1 Department of Pathology, No. 113 Hospital of People's Liberation Army, Ningbo
2 Department of Pathology, Lihuili Hospital, Ningbo, China
3 Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
4 Shanghai GeneCore Biotechnologies Co. Ltd, Shanghai, China
For reprints and all correspondence: Zhong-Zheng Zhu, Department of Pathology, No. 113 Hospital of People's Liberation Army, No. 377 East Zhongshan Road, 315040 Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, China. E-mail: zzzhu1170{at}yahoo.com
Received October 15, 2006; accepted December 17, 2006
A TP53 gene polymorphism, resulting in an arginine (R) to proline (P) at codon 72 (TP53 R72P), has been associated with the susceptibility to various cancers. To better understand the role of this polymorphism in colorectal cancer etiology, we examined the association between TP53 R72P and colorectal cancer risk in 345 patients with colorectal cancer and 670 controls in a Chinese population. We observed that subjects with RP and PP genotypes had a 1.60-fold and a 2.37-fold increased risk for colorectal cancer, respectively. The 72P allele conferred a more pronounced increase in colorectal cancer risk among alcohol consumers (heterozygotes: OR = 3.01; homozygotes: OR = 4.71). The TP53 R72P polymorphism was not linked to tumor location, histologic grade, lymph node metastases, Dukes stage, p53 positivity, or age at diagnosis, but to tumor size. We conclude that the TP53 R72P polymorphism may contribute to the etiology of colorectal cancer in the Chinese population, particularly among alcohol consumers.
Key Words: TP53 • colorectal cancer • single nucleotide polymorphism