We undertook a case-control and a case-case study to examine the possible association of p53 codon72 polymorphism with the breast cancer risk and resistance to anthracycline-based chemotherapy.

Case-control study: This study enrolled 175 patients with breast cancer treated at the Salah Aziez Institute and 159 healthy Tunisian women (matched for age, ethnicity and origin), used as a control, with no clinical evidence of any neoplastic disorder. Case-Case study: 400 breast cancer patients, with invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) treated with anthracycline based-chemotherapy. Genomic DNA was isolated from whole-blood leucocytes using the phenol-chloroform method. Anthracycline response was scored according to the World Health Organization (WHO) criteria. P53 codon72 polymorphism was genotyped using real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) with the TaqMan method. Data were statistically analyzed using the Chi-square test.

Clinical data revealed that among the 400 patients, one quarter was resistant to chemotherapy treatment. Genetic data revealed that the p53 Arg72Pro genotype was found to be greatly associated with breast cancer risk (p<0.001), as well as tumor site (p=0.046). However, resistance to anthracycline-based chemotherapy does not seem to be correlated with p53 codon72 polymorphism in our population. Also, the distribution of tumor size, lymph node involvement and tumor grade was not significantly different among the polymorphic variants.

We conclude that p53 codon72 polymorphism is involved in susceptibility to developing breast cancer. It may be a factor of progression when breast sites are taken into account. However, there is no evidence indicating that Arg72Pro SNP may influence response to anthracycline-based chemotherapy.