High prevalence of mutations at codon 249 of the p53 gene in hepatocellular carcinomas from Senegal.

In hepatocellular carcinoma, mutation within the p53 gene occurs mainly at codon 249 and its frequency has been associated with exposure to aflatoxin. As Senegal is a country where liver cancer incidence is one of the highest in the world and where people are highly exposed to aflatoxin, we screened 15 liver cancer samples from this country for mutation at codon 249 of the p53 gene. Non-tumoral DNA from the patients showed a wild type genotype. Mutation at codon 249 of the p53 gene was detected in 10 of the 15 tumour tissues tested (67%). This frequency of mutation in codon 249 of the p53 gene is the highest described. These results confirmed that there is an association between countries of high aflatoxin intake and a high frequency of mutation in codon 249 of p53 gene, and that HBV alone does not contribute to these base changes.