The Association Between TP53 Arg72pro Polymorphism and Non-Melanoma Skin Cancer Risk: A Meta-Analysis Including 7,107 Subjects

BACKGROUND: The p53 gene is a critical molecular in the protection of cells from DNA damage due to Ultraviolet (UV) exposure, and TP53 mutation is very common in non-melanoma skin cancer. OBJECTIVES: To assess the association between the TP53 Arg72Pro polymorphism and non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) risk. METHODS: We performed this meta–analysis with 13 case-control studies involving 3,520 cases and 3,587 controls. RESULTS: Our meta-analysis showed that TP53 Arg72Pro polymorphism was not associated with non-melanoma skin cancer susceptibility in overall population.(for Arg/Arg vs. Pro/Pro: OR 0.98, 95% CI 0.80-1.19; for Arg/Pro vs. Pro/Pro: OR 0.99, 95% CI 0.84-1.17; for the recessive model Arg/Arg vs. Arg/Pro + Pro/Pro: OR 1.10, 95% CI 0.89-1.35; for the dominant model Arg/Arg + Arg/Pro vs. Pro/Pro: OR 1.00, 95% CI 0.85-1.18). We also detected no effect of this polymorphism on any subtype of non-melanoma skin cancer, such as squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), and basal cell carcinoma (BCC). Furthermore, no significant association in any subgroup was detected in stratified analyses according to ethnicity. However, in the stratified analysis by sample collection resources, Arg/Arg carriers from tumor tissue subgroup had 3.42 times risk of cancer (95% CI, 1.19 to 9.84) as compared with the variant type Pro/Pro in NMSC. CONCLUSIONS: TP53 Arg72Pro polymorphism may have little involvement in the pathogenesis of NMSC, regardless of type, including SCC, and BCC.