Research article

The VEGF -634G>C promoter polymorphism is associated with risk of gastric cancer

Xiaoxiang Guan¹ , Hui Zhao¹ , Jiangong Niu¹ , Dongfeng Tang² , Jaffer A Ajani³ and Qingyi Wei¹

¹Department of Epidemiology, the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas 77030, USA

²Department of Pathology, the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas 77030, USA

³Department of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology, the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas 77030, USA

author email corresponding author email

BMC Gastroenterology 2009, 9:77doi:10.1186/1471-230X-9-77

Published:	16 October 2009

Abstract

Background

Both TGF-β1 and VEGF play a critic role in the multiple-step process of tumorgenesis of gastric cancer. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the TGFB1 and VEGF genes have been associated with risk and progression of many cancers. In this study, we investigated the association between potentially functional SNPs of these two genes and risk of gastric cancer in a US population.

Methods

The risk associated with genotypes and haplotypes of four TGFB1 SNPs and four VEGF SNPs were determined by multivariate logistic regression analysis in 171 patients with gastric cancer and 353 cancer-free controls frequency-matched by age, sex and ethnicity.

Results

Compared with the VEGF-634GG genotype, the -634CG genotype and the combined -634CG+CC genotypes were associated with a significantly elevated risk of gastric cancer (adjusted OR = 1.88, 95% CI = 1.24-2.86 and adjusted OR = 1.56, 95% CI = 1.07-2.27, respectively). However, none of other TGFB1 and VEGF SNPs was associated with risk of gastric cancer.

Conclusion

Our data suggested that the VEGF-634G>C SNP may be a marker for susceptibility to gastric cancer, and this finding needs to be validated in larger studies.