Study of mutations in p53 tumour suppressor gene in human sporadic breast cancers

Using Polymerase Chain Reaction followed by Single Strand Conformation Polymorphism analysis, we studied thirty seven cases of primary human breast cancer for the presence of mutations in exons 5 and 7 of p53 tumour suppressor gene. Only one of the thirty seven tumours tested (2.7%) showed the electrophoretic mobility shift indicative of a mutation in exon 5 of the p53gene, while no such mobility shift was noted in exon 7. Our finding is in contrast to the findings in previous studies, wherein the mutation frequency has been reported to be 13–30% by direct DNA analysis. This may be related to the ethnicity and local population prevalence rather than technique.