Codon 72 exon 4 polymorphism of the p53 gene has been implicated in cancer risk and it has been suggested that it may have an impact on the clinical outcome of the disease. Our objective was to evaluate the association between p53 polymorphism at codon 72 and hepatocellular carcinoma. The p53 codon 72 genotype was examined in 97 biopsy samples from 67 Basque patients histologically diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma. Blood samples collected from 111 Basque residents were examined as a control group. The polymorphism was examined by both single strand conformation polymorphism analysis and allele specific polymerase chain reaction. Fisher's exact test was used to evaluate the data. The results showed that there were no statistically significant differences in the frequency of codon 72 polymorphism genotype between patients with liver cancer and healthy controls. We found a frequent loss of proline allele in hepatitis C virus (HCV)-positive carriers. In conclusion, the lack of a significant relationship between this polymorphism and risk of hepatocellular carcinoma suggests that it does not predispose towards hepatocarcinogenesis in this population. We suggest that the frequent loss of the proline allele in HCV-associated carcinogenesis of the liver plays some role in hepatocarcinogenesis.