Association study of vascular endothelial growth factor gene polymorphisms in endometrial carcinomas in a Japanese population.
OBJECTIVE
Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is one of the most potent endothelial cell mitogens and plays a critical role in angiogenesis of endometrial carcinomas. Several studies have demonstrated positive associations between VEGF gene polymorphisms and several carcinomas. In this study we investigated whether VEGF gene polymorphisms are associated with endometrial carcinomas in a Japanese population.


METHODS
The allele frequencies and genotype distributions of VEGF -460 C/T, +405 G/C, and +936 C/T polymorphisms were examined in 105 endometrial carcinomas and 179 controls using PCR-RFLP analysis. An association of these polymorphisms with three-year disease-free survival was evaluated using the Kaplan-Meier method.


RESULTS
No significant differences in the allele frequencies and genotype distributions of VEGF -460 C/T (p = 0.54, 0.90), +405 G/C (p = 0.31, 0.17), and +936 C/T polymorphisms (p = 0.46, 0.24) were observed between endometrial carcinoma patients and controls. There were no significant differences in the frequencies of haplotype -460 T/+405 C between patients and controls. Futhermore, VEGF -460 C/T, +405 G/C, and +936 C/T polymorphisms were not associated with three-year disease-free survival of endometrial carcinoma patients.


CONCLUSIONS
Although limited by sample size, our study did not demonstrated any evidence that VEGF -460 C/T, +405 G/C, and +936 C/T polymorphisms are associated with an increased risk of endometrial carcinomas in Japanese women.
Amano
M
M
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe, Japan.
Yoshida
S
S
Kennedy
S
S
Takemura
N
N
Deguchi
M
M
Ohara
N
N
Maruo
T
T
D000368:Aged; D044466:Asian People / Q000235:genetics; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D016889:Endometrial Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005787:Gene Frequency; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008875:Middle Aged; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic / Q000235:genetics*; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length / Q000235:genetics*; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A / Q000235:genetics*
D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A