Codon 72 polymorphism of P53 gene does not affect the risk of cirrhosis and hepatocarcinoma in HCV-infected patients

Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is the most frequent cause of progressive liver disease and liver cancer in the West. The p53 tumor supressor gene is known to play an important role in carcinogenesis of different tissues being involved in gene transcription, DNA synthesis and repair and somatic mutations of p53 are common in primary liver cancer. 3 gene displays a common genetic Arg/Pro polymorphism at codon 72 with functional significance, that has been investigated as risk factor in several cancer models. We analyzed p53 codon 72 polymorphism in a group of 340 HCV-infected subjects at different stages of disease, including 84 hepatocellular carcinoma patients. ociation between codon 72 genotypes and disease severity or liver cancer was observed.