No association between the human progesterone receptor gene polymorphism PROGINS and risk for ovarian carcinoma in Austrian women

Abstract

It is correct that the data presented in our report1 on the impact of the progesterone receptor gene variant PROGINS indicate a statistically significant higher likelihood to carry 2 copies of the PROGINS allele for patients with ovarian carcinoma than for healthy women. However, we did not stress this because of the very few PROGINS homozygous individuals among the cancer patients (9/226) and the control group (1/194). In the meantime, we collected and analyzed 46 more DNA samples from ovarian carcinoma patients and from 226 healthy controls. The summarized results (Table I) from the new data and the original data demonstrate that there is no statistically significant difference in the distribution of the genotypes between the ovarian carcinoma patients (patients with borderline tumors excluded) and healthy volunteers. In particular, the frequency of the PROGINS allele A2 was 0.15 in both groups. Analysis of the PROGINS allele as a potential risk factor showed that there is no increased risk of ovarian cancer for either PROGINS allele carriers in general (heterozygotes + homozygotes) or PROGINS homozygotes compared to non-PROGINS carriers [odds ratio (OR) = 0.92, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.65–1.30, p = 0.64; OR = 2.05, 95% CI 0.80–5.44, p = 0.14, respectively]. The frequency of the A2/A2 genotype in patients with ovarian carcinoma was reported contradictory for various populations (0–5%). It also varied from 1.8% to 5% in healthy women.2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 These differences might be partly due to small sample sizes. Thus, based on these data one should be very careful in drawing any conclusion about the functional role of the PROGINS variant for ovarian cancer. Further studies with larger numbers of samples are needed. Yours sincerely, Dan TONG, Gerhild FABJANI, Georg HEINZE, Robert ZEILLINGER Dan Tong*, Gerhild Fabjani*, Georg Heinze , Robert Zeillinger*, * Division of Gynecology, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, General Hospital of Vienna, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, Section of Clinical Biometrics, Department of Medical Computer Science, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.