Association of lysosomal protein transmembrane 4 beta gene polymorphism with pancreatic carcinoma susceptibility in the Chinese population

Pancreatic carcinoma is an aggressive malignancy with particularly low 5-year survival rate. In order to improve the dismal survival rate, identification of new potential susceptibility risk factors for the prevention and early detection of pancreatic carcinoma is of utmost importance. Lysosomal protein transmembrane 4 beta has two alleles designated as LAPTM4B*1 and LAPTM4B*2. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between lysosomal protein transmembrane 4 beta gene polymorphism and the risk of pancreatic carcinoma in China. A population-based case-control analysis was performed in 233 patients with pancreatic carcinoma and 842 control subjects. The genotypes of lysosomal protein transmembrane 4 beta were determined by utilizing polymerase chain reaction based on specific primers. The x(2) test was used to analyze the differences of categorical variables and Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. Odds ratio and 95% confidence intervals were computed using an unconditional logistic regression model. A significant difference in the frequency of LAPTM4B*2 was observed between the patients and the controls (33.05% vs 27.55%, p = 0.03). LAPTM4B*2 had a 1.33-fold (95% confidence interval: 1.04-1.71) higher risk for developing pancreatic carcinoma when compared with LAPTM4B*1 carriers. We found that the frequency of LAPTM4B*1/2 + *2/2 in pancreatic carcinoma group was higher than that in the control group (57.94% vs 48.34%, p = 0.01). However, no significant association was observed between lysosomal protein transmembrane 4 beta genotypes and gender, age, family history of cancer, smoking/alcohol status, histopathological differentiation, lymph node metastasis, clinical stage, or serum cancer antigen 19-9 level. These findings indicate that the LAPTM4B*2 allele is associated with the high risk of pancreatic carcinoma and carrying LAPTM4B*2 may be a susceptible factor to Chinese pancreatic carcinoma patients.