The tumor suppressor p53 gene is the most frequently mutated gene in human cancer. To date, more than 10,000 mutations have been described in the literature, and these data are available in various electronic formats on the World Wide Web. Here we describe the structure and format of the different p53 datasets maintained and curated at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyon, France. These include p53 somatic mutations (more than 10,000 entries), p53 germline mutations (144 entries), and p53 polymorphisms (13 entries), with the somatic mutations organized into a relational database using AccessTM. The main features of these datasets are (1) controlled entry with standardized format and restricted vocabulary, (2) inclusion of annotations on individual characteristics and exposures, and (3) a classification of pathologies based on the International Classification of Diseases for Oncology (ICD-O). In addition, several interfaces have been developed to analyze the data in order to produce mutation spectra, codon analyses, or visualization of the mutation with the tertiary structure of the protein. All datasets and tools for analysis are available at http://www.iarc.fr/p53/homepage.
