Investigation of vascular endothelial growth factor gene polymorphisms and its association with clinicopathologic characteristics in gastric cancer.
OBJECTIVE
Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is known to be a potent proangiogenic factor. This study evaluates the potential association of three VEGF gene polymorphisms (-460T > C, +405G > C, and 936C > T) with the susceptibility to and clinicopathologic characteristics of gastric cancer.


METHODS
The VEGF genotypes were determined using paraffin-embedded tissue from 413 patients who underwent a surgical resection and peripheral blood lymphocytes from 413 healthy controls by PCR-RFLP assay.


RESULTS
There was no difference in the allele frequency of -460T > C polymorphism. However, for the +405G > C polymorphism, the +405C allele was associated with a significantly decreased susceptibility to gastric cancer [odds ratio (OR) 0.686; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.564-0.834]. Although there was no significant difference in the distribution of the 936C > T polymorphism between the two groups, the 936T allele was associated with a decreased susceptibility to gastric cancer (OR 0.757; 95% CI 0.591-0.970). In the haplotype analyses, the haplotype TCT (OR 0.405; 95% CI 0.263-0.624) was most closely associated with a decreased susceptibility to gastric cancer. However, no significant association was observed between the frequency of the genotypes or alleles and the clinicopathologic characteristics of gastric cancer.


CONCLUSIONS
These observations imply that the VEGF gene polymorphisms may be associated with the susceptibility to gastric cancer. However, further studies of other VEGF sequence variants and their biological functions are needed to understand the role of the VEGF polymorphisms in determining the susceptibility to gastric cancer.
Department of Oncology, Center for Diagnosis and Prediction, Kyungpook National University School of Medicine, Jung-Gu, Daegu, Korea.
Yee Soo
YS
Chae
Jong Gwang
JG
Kim
Sang Kyun
SK
Sohn
Yoon Young
YY
Cho
Joon Ho
JH
Moon
Han-Ik
HI
Bae
Jae Yong
JY
Park
Myung-Hoon
MH
Lee
Hyun-Chul
HC
Lee
Ho Young
HY
Chung
Wansik
W
Yu
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D000328:Adult; D044466:Asian People / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D007723:Korea; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000208:ethnology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A / Q000235:genetics*
D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A