association between tp53 gene arg72pro polymorphism and wilms’ tumor risk in a chinese population

Wen Fu,1,2,* Zhen-Jian Zhuo,3,* Wei Jia,1,2 Jinhong Zhu,4 Shi-Bo Zhu,1,2 Ze-Feng Lin,1,2 Feng-Hua Wang,1,2 Huimin Xia,1,2 Jing He,1,2 Guo-Chang Liu1,2 1Department of Pediatric Urology, Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Center, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 2Department of Pediatric Surgery, Guangzhou Institute of Pediatrics, Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Center, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 3Faculty of Medicine, School of Chinese Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 4Molecular Epidemiology Laboratory, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Harbin Medical University Cancer Hospital, Harbin, Heilongjiang, People’s Republic of China *These authors contributed equally to this work Abstract: Wilms’ tumor is one of the most prevalent pediatric malignancies, ranking fourth in childhood cancer worldwide. TP53 is a critical tumor suppressor gene, which encodes a 53 kDa protein, p53. The p53 functions to protect against cancer by regulating cell cycle and apoptosis and maintaining DNA integrity. TP53 gene is highly polymorphic. Several TP53 gene polymorphisms have been considered to be associated with cancer risk. Of them, a nonsynonymous polymorphism, Arg72Pro (rs1042522 C>G), has been most extensively studied for the association with cancer risk; however, few studies have investigated its effect on Wilms’ tumor. Because of the central role of p53 in cell cycle control, the TP53 gene Arg72Pro polymorphism is also a good potential candidate predisposition locus for this pediatric cancer. We genotyped this polymorphism in 145 patients and 531 cancer-free controls recruited from Chinese children by Taqman methodology. Overall, our result suggested a lack of association between the TP53 gene Arg72Pro polymorphism and Wilms’ tumor. In the stratified analysis, we found that carriers of CG/GG genotypes had a significantly increased Wilms’ tumor risk in children not older than 18 months (adjusted odds ratio =2.04, 95% confidence interval =1.003–4.13, P=0.049) compared with CC genotype carriers. Our study indicated that the TP53 gene Arg72Pro polymorphism may have a weak, age-related effect on Wilms’ tumor risk in Chinese children. These findings need further validations in other populations with larger sample size. Keywords: TP53, polymorphism, Wilms’ tumor, susceptibility