Background: Cervical cancer is known to be the fourth most common cancer among women globally. In various factors, genetic factors have been considered as one major risk factor for cervical cancer. The research of genetic susceptibility to cervical cancer can be greatly helpful in studying the complex mechanism. This study was conducted to identify whether polymorphic variants of p73 G4C14-A4T14 and tumor protein p53 (p53) codon 72, either independently or jointly, might be associated with the risk of cervical cancer.
Methods: The genotypes of p73 G4C14-A4T14 and p53 codon 72 polymorphisms of peripheral blood DNA from 190 cervical cancer patients and 210 controls were investigated using polymerase chain reaction with confronting two-pair primers and polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism, respectively.
Results: The frequency of p73 G4C14-A4T14 AT/AT (P = 0.013) or p53 codon 72 GG (P = 0.026) genotype was associated with an increased risk of cervical cancer by comparing with the p73 G4C14-A4T14 GC/GC or p53 codon 72 CC genotype, respectively. In addition, the interaction between the p73 G4C14-A4T14 and p53 codon 72 polymorphisms increased the risk of cervical cancer in a multiply manner, with the odds ratio being 3.692 (95% confidence interval =2.106-6.473) for subjects carrying both p73 G4C14-A4T14 GC/AT+AT/AT and p53 codon 72 GG genotypes.
Conclusion: These results suggest that there is a statistical difference between p73 and p53 gene polymorphism and the risk of cervical cancer in Chinese women, and there is a potential gene-gene interaction in the incidence of cervical cancer.
Keywords: Cervical cancer; p53; p73; polymorphism; susceptibility.