OPN gene polymorphisms are associated with susceptibility and clinicopatholigical characteristics of cervical cancer in a Chinese cohort.

Aim: To explore the possible association between Osteopontin (OPN) genetic polymorphisms and cervical cancer risk, which remains undocumented yet. Method: We enrolled 300 patients with histologically confirmed cervical squamous cell carcinoma and 774 age-matched healthy, unrelated, cancer-free female healthy subjects as control subjects. Three OPN gene polymorphisms were determined. Reulsts: The genotype distributions and allele frequencies of -156 GG/G and -443 T/C polymorphisms were significantly differed between cervical cancer patients and controls. The cervical cancer cases had markedly higher percentage of -156 GG carriage and significantly lower TT and TC of -443 genotypes than controls. The Logistic regression analysis showed that the -156 GG carriage was associated with significantly elevated OR of 2.492 for cervical cancer while the TT and TC of -443 represented lower risks. This trend was not seen in subjects without human papillomavirus infections. In addition, the -156 GG carriages was significantly associated with poorer clinical conditions, including higher clinical stage, poorer tumor differentiation, higher positive lymph node status and higher chance of parametrical invasion. The -443 T/C and -66 T/G polymorphisms did not show any association with the clinicopathological feature. Conclusion: These results suggest that the -156 GG/G and -443T/C polymorphisms might be used as a genetic marker for cervical cancer susceptibility.