RESUMO
N-acetyl transferases play important roles in the bio-activation and detoxification of a number of aromatic and heterocyclic amines. This suggests that polymorphism of genes encoding such enzymes may represent potential risk factors for cancer. In Egypt and surrounding Arab countries, only very few studies and in small size samples have been developed to study the association between N-acetyl transferases polymorphism and incidence of different types of cancer. This study was conducted to examine whether NAT 2 genotypes are risk factor for bladder cancer incidence and also to study possible association of tobacco usage and bilharzial involvement with NAT 2 genotype of these patients. For this purpose, 200 bladder cancer patients and 220 controls were undertaken over a period of 24 months. The NAT 2 genotypes were identified by PCR-RFLP method in peripheral blood DNA samples .Genotype frequencies and the association of the genotypes among patients and controls were assessed by Chi-square and Fisher exact tests. The frequency of slow or fast acety-lator genotypes was not significant in bladder cancer patients alone [OR=0.804, 95% CI: 0.344-1.877, p value=0.613] or in combination with tobacco users [OR=1.2, 95% CI: 0.291- 4.949, p value= 0.801] or with bilharzial involvement [OR= 0.451, 95% CI: 0.194-1.053, p value= 0.061]. In conclusion, this study indicates that NAT2 genotype exhibits non-significant association with the risk of developing bladder cancer, either alone or with tobacco users or clinicopathological of the disease [with exception of lymph node involvement]. These results maybe due to in-ter-ethnical differences of polymorphic traits smoking, and dietary habits So that investigations on the role of polymorphic genes as susceptibility factor for complex diseases like cancer may lead to different results in different population