XPA gene polymorphisms and risk of neuroblastoma in Chinese children: a two-center case-control study

Neuroblastoma is a malignant tumor arising from the developing sympathetic nervous system, which mainly affects children. Variations in XPA gene have been shown to confer cancer susceptibility. However, no investigation has been reported regarding the association between XPA polymorphisms and neuroblastoma risk. This study was conducted to measure the association of XPA polymorphisms with neuroblastoma susceptibility in Chinese children. In this hospital-based case-control study with 393 cases and 812 controls, we genotyped two polymorphisms (rs1800975 T>C, and rs3176752 G>T) in XPA gene to access their contributions to neuroblastoma risk by TaqMan methods. The strength of the association with neuroblastoma risk was estimated by odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). No single polymorphism was found to predispose to neuroblastoma susceptibility. When risk genotypes were combined, we found that carriers of 1-2 risk genotypes had significantly increased neuroblastoma risk (adjusted OR=1.28; 95% CI=1.001-1.64, P=0.049), when compared to non-carriers. Stratification analysis by age, gender, sites of origin and clinical stages failed to show any significant association. Our study provides cues that XPA gene polymorphisms may exert a weak effect in neuroblastoma risk. This finding needs further validations by larger sample size studies.