TNF-alpha, TNF-beta, IL-6, IL-10, PECAM-1 and the MPO inflammatory gene polymorphisms in osteosarcoma

The inflammatory microenvironment of tumors is characterized by the presence of cytokines and growth factor's network both in the supporting stroma and in tumor areas. These molecules may contribute to tumoral growth and progression, facilitating metastatic process. Therefore, cancer susceptibility and severity may be associated with the functional polymorphisms of inflammatory genes. We hypothesized that inflammatory gene polymorphisms may have important role for osteosarcoma patients. We studied - 308G > A TNF-alpha, + 252A > G TNF-beta, - 174G > C IL-6, - 1082A > G IL-10, + 125C > G PECAM-1, and the - 463A > G MPO inflammatory gene polymorphisms in 80 osteosarcoma patients and 160 control individuals using polymerase chain reaction-restriction-fragment length polymorphisin method. We found that the patients with variant genotype (GG) of the + 252A > G TNF-beta gene showed an event-free survival rate of 20% at 100 months. We suggest that the presence of the variant genotype (GG) of the + 252A > G TNF-beta polymorphism, which leads to higher level of cytokine production, could be a facilitator mechanism in tumor progression leading to a poor event-free survival.