Polymorphisms of multiple genes involved in NER pathway predict prognosis of gastric cancer

Nucleotide excision repair (NER) is a versatile system that repairs various DNA damage. Polymorphisms of core NER genes could change NER ability and affect gastric cancer (GC) prognosis. We systematically analyzed the association between 43 SNPs of ten key NER pathway genes (ERCC1, ERCC2, ERCC3, ERCC4, ERCC5, ERCC6, ERCC8, XPA, XPC, and DDB2) and overall survival (OS) of 373 GC patients in Chinese. Genotyping was performed by Sequenom MassARRAY platform. We found for the first time that carriers of ERCC2 rs50871 GG genotype demonstrated significantly increased hazards of death than GT/TT individuals (HR=2.55, P=0.002); ERCC6 rs1917799 heterozygote GT were associated with significantly shorter OS than wild-type TT (adjusted HR=1.68, P=0.048); patients with DDB2 rs3781619 GG genotype suffered higher hazards of death compared with AG/AA carriers (adjusted HR=2.30, P=0.003). Patients with ERCC1 rs3212961 AA/AC genotype exhibited longer OS than CC genotype (adjusted HR=0.63, P=0.028); ERCC5 rs2094258 AA/AG genotype revealed significantly favorable OS compared with GG genotype (adjusted HR=0.65, P=0.033); DDB2 rs830083 CG genotype could increase OS compared with GG genotype (adjusted HR=0.61, P=0.042). Furthermore, patients simultaneously carrying two “hazard” genotypes exhibited even significantly worse survival with HR of 3.75, 3.76 and 6.30, respectively. Similarly, combination of “favorable” genotypes predicted better prognosis with HR of 0.56, 0.49 and 0.33, respectively. In conclusion, ERCC2 rs50871 G/T, ERCC6 rs1917799 G/T, DDB2 rs3781619 A/G polymorphisms could predict shorter OS while ERCC1 rs3212961 A/C, ERCC5 rs2094258 A/G, DDB2 rs830083 C/G polymorphisms could predict longer OS of GC, which might serve as promising biomarkers for GC prognosis.