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The functional single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in codon 72 of TP53 has been shown to be both a risk factor and a prognostic biomarker in various cancers. Such results were also reported in brain tumors, notably in astrocytomas. This SNP has never been precisely investigated in oligodendroglial tumors. We retrospectively analyzed blood samples of 275 oligodendroglial tumor patients for the TP53 codon 72 polymorphism and compared them with a series of 144 healthy controls. Arg/Arg, Arg/Pro, and Pro/Pro genotypes were found in 54.2 versus 60.4%, 39.3 versus 34.0%, and 7.3 versus 5.6% of patients and controls, respectively. This suggests no association between oligodendroglial tumors and the SNP in codon 72 of TP53. Similarly, no correlation was found among the TP53 codon 72 polymorphism and prognosis, p53 expression, and chromosomes 1p and 19q status.

About 5% of gliomas occur in a familial context, which suggests a genetic origin, but the predisposing molecular factors remain unknown in most cases. A series of nine familial gliomas were characterized with 1-megabase resolution BAC array-based comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) together with germline sequence analysis of TP53. This series was compared with a literature series of familial gliomas and a personal series of sporadic gliomas, analyzed by chromosome CGH and aCGH, respectively. No significant difference was noted between the three populations in terms of clinical characteristics, pathologic features, and the most frequent chromosomal alterations, including loss of 1p, 10p, 10q, 13q, and 19q, and gain of 7p, 7q, 16p, 18q, 19p, 19q, 20p, and 22q. However, a genomic region located in 6q was more frequently gained in our series of familial as compared to sporadic gliomas (P=0.028). A germline TP53 mutation was observed in 1/9 cases, which suggests Li-Fraumeni syndrome. Interestingly, the Pro allele in the codon 72 of TP53 was observed in 5/9 tumors. Although familial and sporadic gliomas share very similar cytogenetic quantitative patterns, aCGH is a promising technique for the detection of small genomic differences of potential significance.