The VEGF -634G&gt;C promoter polymorphism is associated with risk of gastric cancer

Xiaoxiang Guan,Qingyi Wei,Dongfeng Tang,Jaffer A Ajani,Jiangong Niu,Hui Zhao

doi:10.1186/1471-230x-9-77

Abstract

BackgroundBoth TGF-β1 and VEGF play a critic role in the multiple-step process of tumorgenesis of gastric cancer. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the TGFB1 and VEGF genes have been associated with risk and progression of many cancers. In this study, we investigated the association between potentially functional SNPs of these two genes and risk of gastric cancer in a US population.MethodsThe risk associated with genotypes and haplotypes of four TGFB1 SNPs and four VEGF SNPs were determined by multivariate logistic regression analysis in 171 patients with gastric cancer and 353 cancer-free controls frequency-matched by age, sex and ethnicity.ResultsCompared with the VEGF-634GG genotype, the -634CG genotype and the combined -634CG+CC genotypes were associated with a significantly elevated risk of gastric cancer (adjusted OR = 1.88, 95% CI = 1.24-2.86 and adjusted OR = 1.56, 95% CI = 1.07-2.27, respectively). However, none of other TGFB1 and VEGF SNPs was associated with risk of gastric cancer.ConclusionOur data suggested that the VEGF-634G>C SNP may be a marker for susceptibility to gastric cancer, and this finding needs to be validated in larger studies.

Highlights

Both TGF-β1 and Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) play a critic role in the multiple-step process of tumorgenesis of gastric cancer
About two-thirds of gastric cancer could be prevented by changing lifestyle and diet habits [3], the fact that some individuals develop gastric cancer while others do not when having similar exposures suggests that genetic factors may play an important role in the etiology of gastric cancer
Some Transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGFB1) and VEGF variants are associated with protein functions, which may contribute to an individual's susceptibility to cancer [13]

Summary

Introduction

Both TGF-β1 and VEGF play a critic role in the multiple-step process of tumorgenesis of gastric cancer. It has been reported that both TGF-β1 and VEGF played an important role in the oncogenesis of gastric cancer [4,5] Both TGFB1 and VEGF genes are highly polymorphic, reportedly having 168 and 140 variants, respectively, but few are within the promoters or coding regions that may be potentially functional http:// www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/SNP/. Of these variants, several common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been described as important [6,7,8] and reported to be involved in the etiology of various cancers [9,10,11,12]. Several studies have investigated the association between TGFB1 and VEGF SNPs and risk of cancers, including breast cancer [14,15,16], lung cancer [17,18], and gastric cancer [19,20,21,22], but the results were inconsistent

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion