Family history ofcancer,bodyweight, andp53nuclear overexpression in Duke's Ccolorectal cancer

Summary Toexamine the hypothesis that colorectal carcinomas with and without TP53 mutations may becharacterised by aetiological heterogeneity, we analysed a group of 107 patients with primary Dukes' Ccolorectal cancer seen at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) from 1986 to 1990. Weassessed p53 overexpression using the monoclonal antibody PAb1801, andidentified 42 (39%)patients displayingp53-positive phenotype, defined as >25% of positive cells. Patients with two or more first-degree relativeswith cancer had an odds ratio (OR)of2.9 (95% CI 1.0-8.3) for p53 overexpression in comparison with thosewithout a family history of cancer (trend test, P = 0.11). A possible association between bodyweight and p53overexpression was observed. TheORs were 1.9 for the second quartile, 1.9 for the third quartile and 3.4 forthe highest quartile in comparison with the lowest quartile (trend test, P = 0.06). No association betweenoccupational physical activity, smoking, drinking, parity and p53 overexpression