Association of a p 53 Codon 72 Gene Polymorphism with Environmental Factors and Risk of Lung Cancer : a Case Control Study in Mizoram and Manipur , a High Incidence Region in North East India

The p53 tumor suppressor gene plays a central role in modulating cellular process that governs the major defenses against tumor growth, maintenance of genetic integrity, cell cycle arrest and apoptosis (Whibley et al., 2009; Cheng et al., 2012; Azlin et al., 2014; Ren et al., 2013). p53 gene is one of the most studied genes in cancer research. The gene harbors high-frequency, functional single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) which may alter p53 protein function (Grochola et al., 2010). Several functional p53 SNPs have been reported to be associated with risk of developing different human cancers, including lung cancer (Yan et al., 2009; Francisco et al., 2011; Bellini et al., 2012; Karim et al., 2014; Zeichner et al., 2014). Among these the most common is codon 72 polymorphisms is a single-base substitution of cytosine