ASSOCIATION BETWEEN GENETIC POLYMORPHISMS OF DNA REPAIR GENES (XPC, XPG) AND HEAD AND NECK CANCER SUSCEPTIBILITY IN INDIAN POPULATION: A HOSPITAL BASED CASE-CONTROL STUDY.

Rohit D. Vhaval, Kailas D. Datkhile*, Madhavi N. Patil, Tejasvi S. Khamkar, Pratik P. Durgawale, Satish V. Kakade

ABSTRACT

Background: Smoking and alcohol related head and neck cancer is a major concern of health risk in rural parts of developing countries, such as India. In this study, we aimed to determine the frequency of polymorphisms in DNA repair gene, Xeroderma pigmentosum complementation group C (XPC) and Xeroderma pigmentosum complementation group G (XPG) in patients of oral cancer from western Maharashtra and to evaluate their association with oral cancer development. Methods: We used polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) to analyze XPC & XPG gene polymorphisms in 320 patients with oral cancer and in 400 age and sex matched disease-free controls. Results: The result from our study showed that allele frequencies of selected genes were not statistically different between the groups for XPC Gln939, XPGAsp1104. XPC Intron 11 (OR= 4.65; 95% CI= (3.16-6.85); p= <0.0001) genotypes significantly increased the risk of head and neck cancer. Conclusions: This study indicates that polymorphisms in intron11 of XPC gene could play a role in modifying genetic susceptibility of individual to head and neck cancer in Maharashtra patients. The case-control study suggests that selected DNA repair genes represent genetic determinants in oral carcinogenesis along with other environmental risk factors in the unexplored rural Indian population.

Keywords: Genetic polymorphisms, XPC, XPG, cancer risk, genotyping, PCR-RFLP