Genetic variants in cell death pathway genes and HBV-related hepatocellular carcinoma among a Chinese Han population

Cell death pathway plays an important role in apoptosis, and corruption of this signaling pathway has been shown to participate in carcinogenesis. We aimed at determining whether genetic variants in CASP8, CASP10 and CFLAR influence the development and clinical outcomes of hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). A hospital-based case-control study, including 600 HCC cases and 600 HBsAg positive controls without HCC, was conducted to assess the relationship between 11 tagging SNPs in CASP8, CASP10 and CFLAR and HBV-related HCC risk and prognosis in a Chinese Han population. Among the 11 polymorphisms, only CASP8 rs3834129 (−652 6N ins/del) modified HCC risk. Compared with CASP8 −652 insins genotype, the deldel (adjusted OR 0.717, 95% CI 0.553–0.930) and insdel (adjusted OR 0.731, 95% CI 0.554–0.964) genotypes had a significantly decreased HCC risk. Furthermore, this polymorphism was significantly associated with decreased portal vein tumor thrombosis (adjusted OR 0.554; P = 0.044) and reduced postoperative recurrence (adjusted OR 0.356; P < 0.001) of resected HCC. In addition, the multivariate analysis showed that the −652 6N ins/del polymorphism was significantly associated with improved overall survival and recurrence-free survival of resected HCC patients. The expression levels of CASP8 in HCC tumor tissues were significantly lower than those in paracancerous liver tissues, although no significant association between −652 6N ins/del genotypes and the expression levels of CASP8 were observed in these tissues. These results suggest that the CASP8 −652 6N ins/del polymorphism may play a protective role in the development, progression, and survival of HBV-related HCC among the Chinese Han population.