A case-control study about the association between vascular endothelial growth inhibitor gene polymorphisms and breast cancer risk in female patients in Northeast China

OBJECTIVE: The inhibition of the neovascularization in tumors is a potential therapeutic target of cancer. Vascular endothelial growth inhibitor (VEGI) is a member of the TNF superfamily which has the ability to suppress the formation of new vessels in tumors. In order to study the association between VEGI gene polymorphisms and breast cancer risk, a case-control study was conducted in Chinese Han women in Northeast China. METHODS: Our study involved 708 female breast cancer patients and 685 healthy volunteers. Four SNPs of VEGI gene were analyzed through the polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method. The association between VEGI gene polymorphisms and breast cancer risk was analyzed in our study. The relation between VEGI gene variants and clinical features of breast cancer including lymph node (LN) metastasis, estrogen receptor (ER), progestrogen receptor (PR), tumor protein 53 (p53), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (Her-2) and triple negative (ER-/PR-/Her-2-) status was analyzed as well. RESULTS: We found that the CT genotype and T allele of rs6478106 were more frequent in patients than in controls. There was also a statistical difference in the distribution of C(rs6478106)G(rs4263839) haplotype between patients and controls. In addition, SNP rs6478106 and rs4979462 were related with the Her-2 status. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that VEGI gene variants may be related to the breast cancer risk and the clinical features of breast cancer in Chinese Han women in Northeast China.