Association of the XRCC1 Gene Polymorphisms in Patients with Stomach Cancer

Genetic instability resulting from mutations m repair genes or denaturation in DNA synthesis has been reported to play an important role in the development of cancer. Through studies of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), X-ray repair cross-complementing groups 1 (XRCC1), which is an enzyme involved in the process of base repair, has been reported to be linked to the development of cancer. Recently, their roles in other causes of morbidity have also attracted considerable interest. Thus the present case-control study was conducted to determine the possibility of an association between XRCC1 polymorphisms and stomach cancer among Korean subjects. The study subjects were composed of 187 patients with stomach cancer, and 206 control subjects with no evidence of any malignancy or premalignant lesions. All the subjects were analyzed for polymorphisms of the XRCC1 gene by means of polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism. XRCC1 Arg194Trp(C>T), Arg280His(G>A) and Arg399Gln(G>A) polymorphisms showed no significant link to the development of stomach cancer. Heterozygous mutations of XRCC1 Arg194Trp (C > T) and Arg280His(G > A) polymorphisms, however, showed the tendency to be linked to an increased development of intestinal cancer. The haplotypes of XRCC1 Arg194Trp(C>T), Arg280His(G>A) and Arg399Gln(G>A) polymorphisms were associated with an increased risk of development of stomach cancer among individuals with intestinal and diffuse types. We thus conclude that the haplotypes of XRCC1 polymorphisms are associated with an increased risk of development of stomach cancer.