Polymorphisms of the TP53 gene codon 72 exhibit less effective function in tumor suppression and usually are associated with human cancer. To investigate the frequency of proline and arginine alleles of TP53 codon 72, the present study analyzed the DNA from blood samples of 30 Iranian women with endometrial cancer, in comparison with 32 healthy women. A Pro/Pro genotype was associated with increased endometrial cancer risk (odds ratio OR = 3.7, 95% confidence interval CI = 0.539-25.59). In patients, Pro allele frequency (68%) was higher than Arg frequency (32%), and higher also than Pro frequency in healthy control subjects (55%) (OR = 1.9, 95% CI = 0.903-3.893). It could be that the Pro allele is less apoptotic than the Arg allele, and that the Arg allele most probably activates transcription factors more efficiently than the Pro variant. These novel findings on the frequency of TP53 gene codon 72 polymorphism in endometrial cancer in Iranian women indicate that in this population the Pro allele might be associated with increased risk of endometrial cancer.
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