The association between polymorphism of P53 Codon72 Arg/Pro and hepatocellular carcinoma susceptibility: evidence from a meta-analysis of 15 studies with 3,704 cases

Emerging evidence has shown that p53gene participates in human carcinogenesis as tumor suppressors. Polymorphism of p53 gene codon72 arginine (Arg)/proline (Pro) (rs1042522) may influence the function of p53 protein and then affect the processing of carcinogenesis. It has been suggested that p53 codon72 Arg/Pro polymorphism is associated with susceptibility to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, published results are inconsistent and inconclusive. To examine the validity of the association between the polymorphism and HCC risk, we performed this meta-analysis. We have conducted a search of case–control studies on the associations of p53 codon72 polymorphism with susceptibility to HCC in PubMed, ScienceDirect, BioMed central, Springer, EBSCO, Wanfang databases, and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure databases. A total of 15 studies were identified with 3,704 cases and 4,559 controls for codon72 Arg/Pro polymorphism. The result did support a significant genetic association between Pro allele and susceptibility to HCC in all the genetic models. Similarly, subgroup analysis showed significant associations between the Arg/Pro polymorphism and susceptibility to HCC when stratifying by race, gender, source of controls, and hepatitis virus infection status. This meta-analysis suggests that p53 codon72 Arg/Pro polymorphism may be associated with the risk of HCC, especially in subgroup analysis of Asian and Caucasian population, hospital-based population, the female, and the individuals infected with hepatitis virus. However, well-designed studies based on different ethnic groups with larger sample size and more detailed data are needed to confirm these conclusions.