An initial report suggested that patients homozygous for the arginine allele at codon 72 of P53 were at increased risk for human papillomavirus (HPV)-related cervical cancer, but other groups have not confirmed this finding. Since approximately 18-36% of head and neck cancers are HPV-related, we examined the genotypic frequencies at that locus in 163 cases with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) and 163 ethnically matched controls. We found no significant excess of arginine homozygotes in cases compared to controls (P= 0.50). No significant differences in allele frequencies were observed when the data were stratified by tobacco exposure or by cancer site. These findings suggest a limited role, if any, for this P53 polymorphism in SCCHN.