A role for the p53 mRNA in controlling the stability of the encoded protein is also implicated by the observation that the accumulation of wild type p53 protein following DNA damage does not take place when expressed from a non-MDM2 binding p53 mRNA that carries a synonymous cancer-derived mutation in codon 22 (L22L) (106,108,148) or to other two single silent cancer-derived p53 mutations V10V and P36P (149,150) (Table 2). The gene discussed is MDM2; the disease is cancer.