P53 GENE MUTATIONS IN NON-SMALL CELL LUNG CANCER DETECTED BY POLYMERASE CHAIN REACTION SINGLE-STRAND CONFORMATION POLYMORPHISM ANALYSIS

Mutations of the p53 tumor suppressor gone are the most frequent genetic akerations detected in human lung cancer. To assess the pathogenic significance of p53 gone alterations in Chlnege non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), 74 paired samples of primary lung cancer and normal lung tissue far away from the cancer were analyzed for mutations of the p53 gene(exons 5-8) using exon-specific PCR, single-gtrand conformation polymorphimax (PCR-SSCP). p53 mutations were observed in 55.4% (41/74) of the samples.No linkaiges were detected between the incidence of p53 mutations and histological type, lymph node metastasis, age or sex. Significant association between p53 mutations and degree of differentiation in edenotmremmnas, not in squamous cell carcinomas, was observed, The frequency of p53 mutations in(65. 3%) was higher than in nonsmokers (33. 3%) and reached stafisrical significance. We also found p53 mutations in 6/7 samples which had tissue invasion and distant metastasis. These results suggest that smcking could be an important factor in lung carcinogenesis, p53 mutation is a worse prognosis indicator in ade and nocarcinomas and related to high aggressive behavior of human lung cancer.