TP53 and cancer: TP53, the gene encoding the p53 protein, has been found to be mutated or deleted in nearly 50% of cancers [3,84]; however, the frequency of TP53 mutations varies heavily among different cancer types, and some malignancies such as cervical cancer, renal clear cell carcinoma and leukemia have less than 10% TP53 mutational frequency (Figure 1).