Association of Common Genetic Variants in Pre-microRNAs and Neuroblastoma Susceptibility: A Two-Center Study in Chinese Children

Neuroblastoma is a commonly occurring extracranial pediatric solid tumor without defined etiology. Polymorphisms in pre-miRNAs have been demonstrated to associate with the risk of several cancers. So far, no such polymorphism has been investigated in neuroblastoma. With this in mind, we performed a two-center case-control study to assess the association of genetic variants in pre-miRNAs and neuroblastoma susceptibility in Chinese children, including 393 cases and 812 controls. We found that miR-34b/c rs4938723 T > C polymorphism was significantly associated with decreased neuroblastoma risk (TC versus TT: adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 0.51, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.39–0.67; TC/CC versus TT: adjusted OR = 0.62, 95% CI = 0.48–0.79). We also observed the significant association between the miR-218 rs11134527 A > G polymorphism and decreased neuroblastoma risk (AG versus AA: adjusted OR = 0.73, 95% CI = 0.56–0.96). Stratified analysis further demonstrated that the protective effect of the rs4938723 T > C polymorphism remained prominent in the subgroups, regardless of age, gender, and clinical stages. In term of sites of origin, this polymorphism significantly reduced the risk of tumors originating from the adrenal gland. We further validated the significant results using false-positive report probability analyses. Overall, the miR-34b/c rs4938723 T > C and miR-218 rs11134527 A > G polymorphisms displayed a protective role from neuroblastoma. These findings need further validation.