Association of cytotoxic T-lymphocyte associated protein 4 gene polymorphisms with the risk and prognosis of oesophageal cancer in a high-incidence region from northern China

Potentially functional genetic variants of the Notch signaling pathway genes predict survival of Chinese patients with Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

BACKGROUND

The Notch signaling pathway is involved in progression of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), but the roles of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the Notch signaling pathway genes in the process remain unknown.

METHODS

The present study included 1,009 patients with histopathologically diagnosed ESCC at Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center (FUSCC). The two-stage multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was used to estimate associations between 13,248 SNPs in 103 Notch signaling pathway genes and overall survival of the patients.

RESULTS

We found that overall survival of the patients was significantly associated with genotypes of HDAC9 rs1729318 (AT+TT vs AA: HR = 1.44, 95% CI = 1.16-1.80, P_combined = 0.001) and HDAC9 rs1339555498 (GT +TT vs GG: HR = 1.38, 95% CI = 1.10-1.74, P_combined = 0.005). Further receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis indicated that the model with both available clinical factors and these two SNPs improved the area under the ROC curve, compared with the model with clinical factors only (1-year: 0.66 vs. 0.64, P = 0.034). Additional expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) analysis showed that the rs1729318 T variant genotypes were associated with increased mRNA expression levels of HDAC9 in normal esophageal muscular tissue (P = 0.003).

CONCLUSIONS

The results suggest that these two potential functional SNPs on HDAC9 may serve as biomarkers for predicting survival of ESCC patients. However, further studies are needed to confirm these findings.

Association between polymorphisms of ABCB1 and prognosis in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma patients treated with taxane

In China, most esophageal cancer patients are squamous cell carcinomas and treated with taxane-containing regimens; however, few studies have examined taxane pharmacokinetics genes and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) prognosis. A total of 227 pathologically confirmed ESCC patients receiving chemotherapy with taxane were included in the analysis. We genotyped seven SNPs-rs1045642, rs2032582, and rs3213619 of ABCB1; rs2231137 and rs2231142 of ABCG2; and ABCC1 rs246221 and ABCC2 rs3740066-and analyzed their relationship with overall survival. With a retrospective cohort study design, by Cox regression and semi-Bayesian shrinkage, in the genetic recessive model, the variant homozygote of ABCB1 rs1045642 was inversely associated with survival (semi-Bayesian shrinkage cHR=1.82, 95% CI=1.00, 3.31; p=0.0482). Due to inherent defects of the research itself, the finding that the ABCB1 rs1045642 variant was related to poor prognosis in ESCC patients treated with taxane-containing regimens needs to be tested in a larger population and by more genetic and molecular mechanism experiments.

CTLA-4 polymorphism contributes to the genetic susceptibility of epithelial ovarian cancer

AIM

Cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4), an inhibitory molecule on T-cells, plays a key role in tumorigenesis and progression. In the present study, we investigated the effects of three polymorphisms in the CTLA-4 gene on the risk of epithelial ovarian cancer and the clinical outcomes of patients.

METHODS

A case-control study was performed in 527 epithelial ovarian cancer patients and 532 controls. Genotypes of three polymorphisms were determined by polymerase chain reaction/ligase detection reaction. A survival analysis was performed in 346 patients who were followed up for more than 3 years and 208 patients who were followed up for more than 5 years.

RESULTS

There were significant differences in the genotype and allele distribution frequencies of the rs5742909 C/T polymorphism in CTLA-4 between patients and controls (p = 0.009 and p = 0.04, respectively). Compared with the CC genotype, the CT + TT genotype may significantly decrease the risk of developing epithelial ovarian cancer (OR = 0.69, 95% CI = 0.52-0.91). However, no significant association between the rs231775 G/A and rs3087243 G/A polymorphisms and epithelial ovarian cancer risk was observed. The survival analysis showed that three polymorphisms may not be related to the clinical outcomes of patients.

CONCLUSION

Our results suggested that the rs5742909 C/T polymorphism of CTLA-4 may decrease the genetic susceptibility to epithelial ovarian cancer among northern Chinese women.