According to current World Health Organization data, worldwide, cancer is second to cardiovascular diseases as the leading cause of death. The p53 protein is a translation product of the TP53 gene, and it has many functions in cells. Indeed, for this, it is commonly called the “guardian of the genome”. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of mutation and methylation in the promoter of the TP53 gene in cells affected with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. The research material consisted of 34 DNA samples isolated from surgically removed tissue fragments of head and neck tumors. In this work, analysis of all samples for the presence of mutations proved negative. This result simultaneously revealed an absence of mutation in the TP53 gene promoter in the analyzed material. However, the detection of changes in the methylation profile status of the promoter of the TP53 gene in the DNA samples revealed the presence of both methylated alleles in 76.5% of the sample population, while in the remaining 23.5%, methylation was present in only one allele of the studied gene. In our work, we assumed that samples displaying methylation involving two alleles will show greater predisposition to the development of a malignant tumor. The obtained results reveal that despite the lack of mutation in the TP53 gene promoter, its functioning may be impaired by other mechanisms – either epigenetic or environmental.
