NAR Molecular Biology Database Collection entry number 362

http://www-p53.iarc.fr/index.html

Olivier, M.¹, Hollstein M.², Harris C.C..³, Hainaut P..¹

¹Unit of Molecular Carcinogenesis, International Agency for Research on Cancer, World Health Organization, 150 Cours Albert Thomas, 69372 Lyon cedex 08, France
²German Cancer Research Center, Im Neuenheimer Feld 280, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany
³Laboratory of Human Carcinogenesis, Building 37, Room 2C05, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892-4255, USA

Contact p53database@iarc.fr

Somatic mutations in the tumor suppressor gene TP53 are frequent in most human cancers and germline TP53 mutations are associated with a rare cancer-prone syndrome, the Li-Fraumeni syndrome. Over the past ten years, several databases of TP53 mutations have been developed. The most extensive of these databases is maintained and developed at the International Agency for Research on Cancer. The IARC TP53 Database (http://www.iarc.fr/p53) compiles data on human somatic and germline TP53 genetic variations that are reported in the peer-reviewed literature. With over 18,500 somatic and 225 germline mutations and 1,000 citations in the world literature, this database is now recognized as a major source of information on TP53 mutation patterns in human cancer. It can be searched and analyzed online and is useful to draw hypotheses on the nature of the molecular events involved in TP53 mutagenesis and on the natural history of cancer. The database is available at http://www.iarc.fr/P53/ .

Recent developments include:
- restructuring of the database which is now patient-centered, with more detailed annotations on the patient (carcinogen exposure, virus infection, genetic background).
- data on mutation prevalence (R6 update) and on clinical outcome (next update).
- an online search system that allows the online analysis of somatic mutation data (available through the 'database search' option). This ASP (Active Server Pages) application allows the identification and selection of specific sets of data according to user's queries and produces graphical outputs (histograms and pie charts) of mutation patterns, codon distribution and tumor spectrum. A search of reference criteria (author name, PubMed entry, title, etc...) allows the analysis of mutation data by individual publication to generate graphs and figures.
- the entire dataset, or sets of data selected according to the user's queries, can be downloaded as tab-delimited text files, in a compressed format.
- a comprehensive user guide is available online as well as a slide-show on TP53 mutations, database structure/content and examples of mutation analysis.

The project is funded by IARC and supported by the European Community (contract: QLG1-1999-00273).

1. Olivier M, Eeles R, Hollstein M, Khan MA, Harris C.C, Hainaut P. The IARC TP53 Database: new online mutation analysis and recommendations to users. Hum Mutat 2002 Jun;19(6):607-14
2. Hernandez-Boussard T, Montesano R, Hainaut P. Sources of bias in the detection and reporting of p53 mutations in human cancer: analysis of the IARC p53 mutation database. Genet Anal. 1999;14(5-6):229-33.

Go to the abstract in the NAR 1998 Database Issue.

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