The significance of MDM2 SNP309 and p53 Arg72Pro in young women with breast cancer.

The p53 protein and its regulator MDM2 is central to tumorigenesis by directing cells to undergo cell cycle arrest and/or apoptosis in response to DNA damage or other stress signals. The genes encoding these proteins contain nucleotide variation (p53 codon 72, MDM2 SNP309) that influences cellular response. We examined the p53 codon 72 and MDM2 SNP309 to determine their implication with age of disease onset and risk of breast cancer in young women (

Polymorphism in the manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) gene and risk of breast cancer in young women.

PURPOSE: Manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) is one of the major enzymes implicated in the cellular defence against reactive oxygen species. Low expression of MnSOD has been observed in different cancer tissues and several reports have shown that overexpression of MnSOD inhibits growth in various human cancer cells. These observations suggest that MnSOD is involved in carcinogenesis. A polymorphism (Ala-9Val) in the mitochondrial targeting sequence (MTS) of the MnSOD gene has been proposed to affect protein localization and thereby influence cellular defence against superoxide radicals. METHODS: In the present case-control study, including 118 early onset breast cancer patients (