Susceptibility loci associations with prostate cancer risk in northern chinese men

Abstract

Background: KLK3 gene products, like human prostate-specific antigen (PSA), are important biomarkers in theclinical diagnosis of prostate cancer (PCa). G protein-coupled receptor RFX6, C2orf43 and FOXP4 signaling plays important roles in the development of PCa. However, associations of these genes with PCa in northern Chinese menremain to be detailed. This study aimed to investigate their impact on occurrence and level of malignancy. Methods: All subjects were from Beijing and Tianjin, including 266 cases with prostate cancer and 288 normal individuals as controls. We evaluated associations between clinical covariates (age at diagnosis, prostate specific antigen, Gleason score, tumor stage and aggressive) and 6 candidate PCa risk loci, genotyped by PCR- high resolutionmelting curve and sequencing methods. Results: Case-control analysis of allelic frequency of PCa associated withPCa showed that one of the 6 candidate risk loci, rs339331 in the RFX6 gene, was associated with reduced risk ofprostate cancer (odds ratio (OR) = 0.73, 95% confidence interval (CI) =0.57-0.94, P = 0.013) in northern Chinesemen. In addition, subjects with CX (CC+TC) genotypes had a decreased risk for prostrate cancer compared to thosecarrying the TT homozygote (OR =0.64, 95% CI = 0.45-0.90, P = 0.008). The TT genotype of 13q22 (rs9600079, T) was associated with tumor stage (P=0.044, OR=2.34, 95% CI=0.94-5.87). Other SNPs were not significantly associated with clinical covariates in prostate cancer (P > 0.05). Conclusions. rs339331 in the RFX6 gene may be associated with prostate cancer as a susceptibility locus in northern Chinese men.