Common variants at the 9q22.33, 14q13.3 and ATM loci, and risk of differentiated thyroid cancer in the Cuban population

BACKGROUND: The incidence of differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) in Cuba is low and the contribution of host genetic factors to DTC in this population has not been investigated so far. Our goal was to assess the role of known risk polymorphisms in DTC cases living in Havana. We genotyped five polymorphisms located at the DTC susceptibility loci on chromosome 14q13.3 near NK2 homeobox 1 (NKX2-1), on chromosome 9q22.33 near Forkhead factor E1 (FOXE1) and within the DNA repair gene Ataxia-Telangiectasia Mutated (ATM) in 203 cases and 212 age- and sex- matched controls. Potential interactions between these polymorphisms and other DTC risk factors such as body surface area, body mass index, size, ethnicity, and, for women, the parity were also examined. RESULTS: Significant association with DTC risk was found for rs944289 near NKX2-1 (OR (per A allele) = 1.6, 95% CI: 1.2–2.1), and three polymorphisms near or within FOXE1, namely rs965513 (OR (per A allele) = 1.7, 95% CI: 1.2–2.3), rs1867277 in the promoter region of the gene (OR (per A allele) = 1.5, 95% CI: 1.1–1.9) and the poly-alanine tract expansion polymorphism rs71369530 (OR (per Long Allele) = 1.8, 95% CI: 1.3–2.5), only the 2 latter remaining significant when correcting for multiple tests. Overall, no association between DTC and the coding SNP D1853N (rs1801516) in ATM (OR (per A Allele) = 1.1, 95% CI: 0.7–1.7) was seen. Nevertheless women who had 2 or more pregnancies had a 3.5-fold increase in risk of DTC if they carried the A allele (OR 3.5, 95% CI: 3.2–9.8) as compared to 0.8 (OR 0.8, 95% CI: 0.4–1.6) in those who had fewer than 2. CONCLUSIONS: We confirmed in the Cuban population the role of the loci previously associated with DTC susceptibility in European and Japanese populations through genome-wide association studies. Our results on ATM and the number of pregnancies raise interesting questions on the mechanisms by which oestrogens, or other hormones, alter the DNA damage response and DNA repair through the regulation of key effector proteins such as ATM. Due to the small size of our study and to multiple tests, all these results warrant further investigation.