Association of BTLA gene polymorphisms with the risk of malignant breast cancer in Chinese women of Heilongjiang Province

B and T lymphocyte attenuator (BTLA) is an immunoinhibitory receptor with the ability to deliver inhibitory signals for suppressing lymphocyte activation. To identify the influences of BTLA gene polymorphisms on the risk of sporadic breast cancer, a case–control study was conducted in women from northeast of China, Heilongjiang Province. We genotyped five SNPs (rs9288952, rs2931761, rs2633562, rs2705535 and rs1844089) in BTLA gene among exons and introns. Our research groups consist of 592 patients with breast cancer and 506 age/sex-matched healthy controls. Genotypes were determined by the polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) and polymerase chain reaction with confronting two-pair primer (PCR-CTPP) methods. Data were analyzed using the chi-square test by EXCEL, SPSS and Haploview softwares. The frequencies of BTLA rs1844089 CT and rs2705535 AG were higher in patients than in controls (P = 0.0164; P = 0.0031), and rs1844089 CC, rs2705535 GG and rs9288952 CC genotypes had lower incidences in patients than in controls (P = 0.0483; P = 0.0098; P = 0.0400). The frequency of haplotype CAAAT was significantly higher in patients (P = 0.0112). Strong association was shown between five SNPs of BTLA gene and tumor size, estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), C-erbB-2 and P53 statuses. Strong association was observed between tumor size, ER, PR, P53 and the CAGAT(P = 0.012), TAAGT(P = 0.0378), CAGAT(P = 0.0013), CAAGT(P = 0.0373) and CAAAT(P = 0.0306) haplotypes. These results primarily suggested that BTLA gene polymorphisms may affect the sporadic breast cancer risk and prognosis in Chinese women in northeast of Heilongjiang Province.