RESUMEN
Introduction: The production of cytokines, growth factors and adhesion molecules promotes tumor progression and involves inflammation, angiogenesis and thrombosis, thus providing optimal conditions for cancer development
Materials and methods: The present study was undertaken to evaluate association of cytokine gene polymorphisms with cervical cancer in a north Indian population. Genotyping of single nucleotide polymorphisms [SNPs] viz. IL-6-597G/A [rs1800797], IL-1[beta]-511C/T [rs16944] and TNF-[alpha]-308G/A [rs1800629] was carried out in 100 each of cases and healthy age matched controls by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism [PCR-RFLP]. Genotype and allele frequencies were calculated by SPSS [ver.16] and gene-gene interaction was analyzed using SHEsis [ver. Online]
Results: Epidemiological studies showed that women >40 years have higher risk of cervical cancer due to early pregnancies. IL-6 and TNF-[alpha] promoter polymorphisms showed significant association [P < 0.001] while the SNP combinations G A T[Asterisk] and G G T[Asterisk] of IL-6-597A/G, TNF-[alpha]-308G/ A and IL-1[beta]-511C/T polymorphisms showed increased risk up to 9.0 and 3.30 times respectively
Conclusion:Therefore, the promoter polymorphisms in cytokine genes can be used as biomarkers to predict cervical cancer susceptibility in a north Indian population. However, such studies need to be carried out in different ethnic populations in order to discover the specific risk alleles, genotypes and combinations for disease prediction