p53 alterations are the most common genetic lesions observed in lung cancers. Because of the limited size of individual studies, the distributions of p53 alterations by clinicopathological features have not been well characterized. Here, we present meta-analyses describing the occurrence of p53 alterations by patient/tumor characteristics in resected lung cancer. The association between p53 alterations (gene and/or protein) and a variety of variables were evaluated by calculating pooled odds ratios (ORs) and confidence intervals (CIs). p53 alterations were detected in 46.8% of 4684 non-small cell lung cancers. p53 alterations occurred more frequently in the more strongly smoking-associated histotypes: squamous cell (51.2%) and large cell (53.7%) carcinomas versus adenocarcinomas [38.8%; OR (squamous versus adenocarcinoma) = 1.81, 95% CI = 1.55-2.11]. p53 alterations were found to be associated with T1-4, N0-3, stage I-III, differentiation, and sex: OR (T3 versus T1) = 1.62 (95% CI = 0.99-2.65), OR (N1-3 versus N0) = 1.65 (95% CI = 1.27-2.15), OR (stage III versus stage I) = 1.98 (95% CI = 1.35-2.89), OR (poorly and moderately versus well-differentiated) = 3.04 (95% CI = 1.56-5.94), and OR (male versus female) = 1.39 (95% CI = 1.10-1.75). No strong associations between p53 and ras or aneuploidy were observed. Lung cancer studies of p53 and smoking need to consider the effect of histotype, and prognostic studies of p53 should adjust for the effects of T and N or stage and histotype. The apparent association between p53 and sex may be confounded by histotype and must be evaluated by multivariate studies.