p53 mutations are rare events in recurrent cervical cancer

Mutations of the p53 gene have been shown to be associated with aggressive growth behavior and increased recurrence rates for certain tumors. Primary cervical cancers contain oncogenic human papillomaviruses (HPV) in more than 90% of cases and usually possess wild-type p53 alleles. Cervical cancer cells contain detectable levels of functional p53 protein despite of the expression of the HPV E6 protein, which can induce p53 degradation. Thus, inactivation of p53 by somatic mutation should have functional consequences in HPV-positive cancers. We investigated whether p53 mutations play a role in the recurrence of the disease by analyzing p53 status in 18 biopsy specimens from recurrent cervical cancers. Only one of these (5.6%) contained a p53 mutation, as assessed by a sensitive yeast functional assay that detects mutations of the p53 mRNA between codons 52 and 364. These results indicate that p53 mutations are rare events in recurrent cervical carcinomas, and that somatic mutations of p53 do not provide cervical cancer cells with a selective growth advantage for recurrence.