No association between SNP309 promoter polymorphism in the MDM2 and cervical cancer in a study from northeastern Brazil

Background: A functional variant in the MDM2 promoter (a T/G substitution, SNP309) was found to be associated with increased expression of MDM2 gene products and at significantly earlier age onset of tumors in both hereditary Li-Fraumeni individuals and sporadic cancer patients. We tested the hypothesis that this functional variant was associated with either risk or early age diagnosis of cervical cancer in a Brazilian population. Methods: A primer-introduced restriction analysis PCR assay was used to genotype the MDM2 SNP309 of 72 cervical carcinoma patients and 100 healthy women. Results: No statistically significant association was observed between SNP309 and cervical cancer. We did not find allele or genotype frequency differences between the group of patients with cancer diagnosis at an early age (younger than 40 years old) and the group of older patients. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that SNP309 MDM2 may not be a risk factor for cervical cancer.