Association of caveolin-1 and -2 genetic variants and post-treatment serum caveolin-1 with prostate cancer risk and outcomes.

BACKGROUND

Caveolin-1 (cav-1) is overexpressed by metastatic prostate cancer (PC) cells. Pre-operative serum cav-1 levels have been shown to be a prognostic marker for PC recurrence. This study evaluated the relationship between post-treatment serum cav-1 levels and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the cav-1 and -2 genes with risk of PC, aggressive PC, PC recurrence or death.

METHODS

Two case-control studies of PC among men in Washington State were combined for this analysis. Cases (n = 1,458) were diagnosed in 1993-1996 or 2002-2005 and identified via a SEER cancer registry. Age-matched controls (n = 1,351) were identified via random digit dialing. Logistic regression was used to assess the relationship between exposures (19 haplotype-tagging SNPs from all subjects and post-treatment serum cav-1 levels from a sample of 202 cases and 226 controls) and PC risk and aggressive PC. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to assess the relationship between exposures and PC recurrence and death.

RESULTS

Rs9920 in cav-1 was associated with an increased relative risk of overall PC (OR(CT + CC) = 1.37, 95% CI = 1.12, 1.68) and aggressive PC (OR(CT + CC) = 1.57, 95% CI = 1.20, 2.06), but not with PC recurrence or death. High post-treatment serum cav-1 levels were not associated with PC risk, aggressive PC, or PC-specific death, but approached a significant inverse association with PC recurrence (hazard ratio = 0.69, 95% CI = 0.47, 1.00).

CONCLUSIONS

We found modest evidence for an association with a variant in the cav-1 gene and risk of overall PC and aggressive PC, which merits further study. We found no evidence that higher post-treatment serum cav-1 is associated with risk of aggressive PC or adverse PC outcomes.