| Summary: | <p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Chronic inflammation is considered to be implicated in the development of prostate cancer. In this study we are the first to investigate a potential association between variants in an autoimmune related region on chromosome 4q27 and prostate cancer risk. This region harbors two cytokine genes <it>IL-2 </it>and the recently described <it>IL-21</it>.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We genotyped six variants previously associated with autoimmune disease (namely rs13151961, rs13119723, rs17388568, rs3136534, rs6822844 and rs6840978) and one functional <it>IL-2 </it>promoter variant (rs2069762) for possible association with prostate cancer risk using the Australian Risk Factors for Prostate Cancer case-control Study.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Overall, our results do not support an association between the seven variants at position 4q27 and prostate cancer risk. Per allele odds ratios (ORs) were not significantly different from 1 (all P-values = 0.06). However, we found suggestive evidence for a significant association between the presence of the rs13119723 variant (located in a protein of unknown function) and men with a family history of prostate cancer in first-degree relatives (P-value for interaction 0.02). The per allele OR associated with this variant was significantly higher than 1 (2.37; 95% C.I. = 1.01-5.57).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We suggest that genetic variation within the chromosome 4q27 locus might be associated with prostate cancer susceptibility in men with a family history of the disease. Furthermore, our study alludes to a potential role of unknown protein KIAA1109 in conferring this risk.</p>
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