Effect of MTHFR Polymorphisms on Gastrointestinal Cancer Risk in Italy

Abstract

Background: The aim of the study was to assess the association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) C677T and A1298C in the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase gene with colorectal, esophageal/gastric and pancreatic cancer in a cohort of Italian patients.

Methods: A total of 790 cancer patients and 202 healthy controls were genotyped and distributions in genotype and allele frequencies were compared by Chi-squared analysis and logistic regression analysis.

Results: According to most of previous findings, we found an effect of the C677T variant, but no effect of the A1298C, in colorectal and esophageal/gastric, whereas no association was evidenced with pancreatic cancer. We found that only homozygous TT carriers of the C677T variant had an increased risk for onset of cancer.

Conclusion: This result could be related to dietary and behavioral habits of the analyzed population, which could mitigate the deleterious effect of the T allele in heterozygosity and it highlights the importance to validate genetic determinant of cancer risk in different population and geographical areas.




World J Oncol. 2015;6(4):394-397
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.14740/wjon930w