Background: The impact of codon 72 polymorphism of the human tumour suppressor gene p53 on the risk of developing squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck (HNSCC) remains unclear because of contradictory results found by several studies.
Patients and methods: We genotyped a group of 77 patients with advanced HNSCC by using a direct sequencing method.
Results: There were no significant differences in the age of the patients at the time of the first diagnosis nor in the 5-year survival rates. There was no additive effect between different risk factors (alcohol, nicotine) and codon 72 polymorphism. Compared to the frequency of homozygosity encoding for Arg/Arg in the Eurasian population given in literature, the present study has shown a significantly higher frequency of homozygosity for Arg/Arg at codon 72 than commonly detected.
Conclusion: These findings may indicate codon 72 polymorphism as a risk factor for HNSCC or point to a high variability of codon 72 polymorphism among ethnic groups.