Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research Research Polymorphisms of TP53 codon 72 with breast carcinoma risk: evidence from 12226 cases and 10782 controls Wenlei Zhuo*1, Yunsong Zhang2, Zhaolan Xiang3, Lei Cai4 and Zhengtang Chen*1 BioMed Central Open Access Address: 1Institute of Cancer, Xinqiao Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, PR China, 2Department of Thoracic Surgery, the 254thHospital, Tianjin, PR China, 3Department of Otolaryngology, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, PR China and 4Institute of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, PR China Email: Wenlei Zhuo* - zhuowenlei@yahoo.com.cn; Yunsong Zhang - zhangyunsongtj@163.com; Zhaolan Xiang - gyriyu@126.com; Lei Cai - medliterature@163.com; Zhengtang Chen* - cztsyd@yahoo.com * Corresponding authors Published: 14 August 2009 Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research 2009, 28:115 doi:10.1186/1756-9966-28-115 This article is available from: http://www.jeccr.com/content/28/1/115 Received: 16 April 2009 Accepted: 14 August 2009 © 2009 Zhuo et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Background: Previously, TP53 codon 72 polymorphisms have been implicated as risk factors for various cancers. A number of studies have conducted on the association of TP53 codon 72 polymorphisms with susceptibility to breast carcinoma and have yielded inconclusive results. The aim of the present study was to derive a more precise estimation of the relationship. Methods: 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 Jan 2009. The associated literature was acquired through deliberate searching and selected based on the established inclusion criteria for publications. Results: A total of seventeen case-control studies, including 12226 cases and 10782 controls, met the included criteria and thus were selected. Ultimately, the relevant data were extracted and further analyzed using systematic meta-analyses. Overall, no associations of TP53 codon 72 polymorphisms with breast carcinoma were observed (for Arg/Arg vs Pro/Pro: OR = 1.20; 95%CI = 0.96–1.50; for dominant model: OR = 1.12; 95%CI = 0.96–1.32; for recessive model: OR = 1.13; 95%CI = 0.98–1.31). In the subgroup analysis by ethnicity, statistically similar results were obtained when the data were stratified as Asians, Caucasians and Africans. Conclusion: Collectively, the results of the present study suggest that TP53 codon 72 polymorphisms might not be a low-penetrant risk factor for developing breast carcinoma. Backgrounds Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women, exceeded only by lung cancer in the world [1]. It is believed that some epidemic factors such as Oral con- traceptive use [2]; obesity [3] and hyperinsulinemia [4] are probable factors increasing risks of developing breast carcinoma. Although many individuals exposed to these risk factors, breast cancer develops only in a small group of exposed people, implying that genetic factors might contribute to the carcinogenic mechanisms and complex interactions between many genetic and environmental factors might be the major cause of breast cancer. Page 1 of 9 (page number not for citation purposes)