E-cadherin gene polymorphisms and haplotype associated with the occurrence of epithelial ovarian cancer in Chinese.

BACKGROUNDS AND AIMS

E-cadherin plays an important role in the origin of epithelial ovarian cancer. However, the exact molecular mechanism by which this occurs is unknown. The polymorphisms located at the E-cadherin may contribute to an increased risk for certain cancers. In this paper, we studied the association between polymorphisms of E-cadherin and the risk of epithelial ovarian cancer.

METHODS

We assessed the -160C/A, -347G/GA polymorphism within the promoter region and 3'-UTR +54C/T polymorphism of E-cadherin in epithelial ovarian cancer and control women. We also tested the expression of E-cadherin protein in ovarian cancer tissue among three genotype (3'-UTR +54C/T polymorphism) carriers.

RESULTS

There was no significant difference in genotype distribution of the -160C/A and -347G/GA SNPs in the E-cadherin gene promoter region between ovarian cancer patients and controls, but haplotype -160A/-347GA relative to haplotype -160C/-347G was 48.6 (95% CI=2.9-806.2) for epithelial ovarian cancer risk. The C/C genotype of the 3'-UTR +54C/T polymorphism relative to the C/T+T/T genotype was 1.85 (95% CI=1.27-2.69) for epithelial ovarian cancer risk. E-cadherin protein expression in was lower in C/C genotype carriers than T allele carriers in ovarian cancer tissue (P=0.02).

CONCLUSIONS

The C/C genotype of 3'-UTR C/T SNP and -160C/-374GA haplotype in E-cadherin gene may be a potential susceptibility factor for risk of epithelial ovarian cancer in Chinese, which indicated that the lower expression of E-cadherin might play an important role in the pathogenesis of epithelial ovarian cancer.