A Genetic Variant of BTLA Gene is Related with Increased Risk and Clinical Manifestations of Breast Cancer in Chinese Women

Background: B and T lymphocyte attenuator (BTLA), an immunoinhibitory receptor, is shown to suppress the lymphocyte activation. Several studies addressed the relationship between BTLA rs1982809 polymorphism and cancer's risk. Methods: To identify the effects of this polymorphism on the risk of breast cancer (BC), this study was designed in Chinese women from China, Jiangsu Province. This study involved 324 BC patients and 412 controls.Results: We observed that BTLA rs1982809 polymorphism elevated the risk of BC. Similar finding was also shown in the subgroup of premenopausal women and those aged < 55 years old. In addition, this polymorphism correlated with the estrogen receptor (ER) status, C-erbB-2 status, Ki-67 status, tumor node metastasis (TNM) stage and tumor size of BC patients. Conclusions: Collectively, BTLA rs1982809 polymorphism shows a significant association with elevated risk and clinical features of BC in Chinese women. Further studies involving other races are urgently needed to replicate these findings.