Polymorphisms of TP53 codon 72 with prostate carcinoma risk: a meta-analysis

Previous published data indicated TP53 codon 72 polymorphisms as risk factors for various cancers. A large number of studies have been conducted on the association of TP53 codon 72 polymorphisms with susceptibility to prostate carcinoma and have yielded inconclusive results. The aim of the present study is to derive a more precise estimation of the relationship. We conducted a search in the Medline, EMBASE, OVID, Sciencedirect, and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) without a language limitation, covering all papers published up to Feb 2009. The associated literature was acquired through deliberate searching and selected based on the established inclusion criteria for publications. A total of six case–control studies, including 582 cases and 1075 controls, met the included criteria and thus were selected. Consequently, the relevant data were extracted and further analyzed using systematic meta-analyses. For the overall data, no associations of TP53 codon 72 polymorphisms with prostate carcinoma were observed (for Arg/Arg versus Pro/Pro: OR = 0.88; 95%CI = 0.62–1.25; for dominant model: OR = 1.05; 95%CI = 0.78–1.43; for recessive model: OR = 0.85; 95%CI = 0.67–1.06). In the subgroup analysis by ethnicity, individuals carrying Arg allele may have an increased susceptibility to prostate cancer compared with those carrying Pro allele in Caucasians. While for Asians, TP53 codon 72 polymorphism was unlikely to be a risk factor for prostate cancer. Moreover, TP53 codon 72 polymorphism seems to exert little effect on the metastasis and differentiation status of developing prostate carcinoma. Collectively, the results of the present study suggest that TP53 codon 72 polymorphism might be a low-penetrant risk factor for developing prostate carcinoma in Caucasians but not in Asians.