Abstract:

The association between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the promoter region of MMP-2 and TIMP-2 genes and the risk of epithelial ovarian cancer was investigated. MMP-2 C-1306T, C-735T and TIMP-2 G-418C SNPs were genotyped by polymerase chain reaction-restrictive fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) analysis in 246 patients with epithelial ovarian cancer and 324 healthy women as control. Results showed no significant difference between the patient and control groups in allele or genotype distributions of MMP-2 C-1306T (P=0.55 and P=0.42). However, the frequencies of the C allele and the C/C genotype of the MMP-2 C-735T were significantly higher in ovarian cancer patients (80.7% and 66.7%) than those in healthy controls (75.5% and 55.9%). Compared with the T/T+C/T genotypes, the C/C genotype significantly increased the risk of ovarian cancer (OR=1.58, 95%CI=1.12-2.23). Stratification analysis showed that subjects carrying C/C genotype were significantly associated with the risk of endometrioid ovarian cancer and with ovarian cancer in subjects that were 50 or older, with odds ratio at 1.69 (95%CI=1.03-2.79) and 1.71 (95% CI=1.14-2.57), respectively. Haplotype analysis showed that the frequencies of four haplotypes (_T-1306-T_-735, T_-1306-C_-735, C_-1306-T_-735 and C_-1306-C_-735) of MMP-2 C-1306T and C-735T were not significantly different between the patient and control groups (P=0.24). The allele and genotype frequencies of TIMP-2 G-418C were not significantly different between the patient and control groups (P=0.33 and P=0.47). But TIMP-2 -418G/G genotype was associated with a trend for endometrioid ovarian cancer by stratification analysis according to histological subtypes (OR=1.62, 95%CI=0.94-2.78). Thus, the study suggested that the C/C genotype of the C-735T SNP in the promoter region of MMP-2 gene may be a potential risk factor for epithelial ovarian cancer, but the C-1306T SNP may have no association with the risk of epithelial ovarian cancer. The TIMP-2 G-418C SNP may be associated with the risk of different histological subtypes of epithelial ovarian cancer.