The p53 tumor suppressor and its negative regulator, murine double minute 2 (MDM2), play critical roles in carcinogenesis. P53 codon 72 and MDM2 309T>G polymorphisms could influence p53 and MDM2 function, respectively, and might affect cancer susceptibility. We therefore investigated the association between these two SNPs, alone or in combination, and the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in Chinese. In this case-control study, we genotyped p53 codon 72 and MDM2 309T>G polymorphisms in 985 HCC cases and 992 cancer-free age- and sex-matched controls and evaluated their associations with the risk of HCC. Although no significant main effects were found for these two SNPs in the single-locus analysis and stratified analysis by age, sex, smoking, drinking, and hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, we found that individuals carrying at least one G allele of the MDM2 309T>G polymorphism had statistically significant increased risk of HCC among those with the p53 Pro/Pro genotype (adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 2.23, 95 % confidence interval (95%CI) = 1.20-4.14 for TG genotype; adjusted OR = 2.67, 95%CI = 1.32-5.42 for GG genotype), and the interaction between p53 codon 72 and MDM2 309T>G was significant (P interaction = 0.017). Our findings suggest that the interaction of p53 codon 72 and MDM2 309T>G may play an important role in the etiology of HCC. More studies with well-designed and large sample sizes are required to validate these observations.
Keywords: Hepatocellular carcinoma; MDM2; Risk; Single-nucleotide polymorphism; p53.