P53 Codon 72 Polymorphism and the Risk of Cervical Cancer in Zimbabwean Women

Aims: To investigate the prevalence of p53 codon 72 polymorphism in Zimbabwean women and risk of cervical cancer

Study Design: Case-control study

Place and Duration of Study: Parirenyatwa Referral Hospital in Harare in between January and December 2014.

Methodology: Genomic DNA from cervical cancer patients and women without cancer was extracted from whole blood and genotyping of the p53 codon 72 polymorphism was performed using the polymerase chain reaction followed by restriction fragment length polymorphism method.

Results: The frequencies of the Arg/Arg; Arg/Pro and Pro/Pro genotypes in cervical cancer patients were reported as 15.07%, 43.84% and 41.10% respectively. An unconditional logistic regression model was used to calculate odds ratios (ORs) with a corresponding 95% confidence interval [95%CI] as measure of risk and association between the p53 polymorphism and the development of cervical cancer. The p53 Arg/Arg was found to be at increased risk for the development of cervical cancer (OR= 1.78). However its association with the development of cervical cancer was not statistically significant (p-value= 0.29; 95% CI, 0.54-6.12).

Conclusion: The prevalence of the Arg/Arg genotype in our study was low in women with cervical cancer. The genotype was poorly associated with the disease.