A Genetic Variant of the BTLA Gene is Related to 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 the BTLA rs1982809 polymorphism and the risk of cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS To identify the effects of this polymorphism on the risk of breast cancer (BC), this study examined Chinese women from China, Jiangsu Province. This study involved 324 patients with BC and 412 controls. RESULTS We observed that the BTLA rs1982809 polymorphism elevated the risk of BC. A similar finding was also shown in the subgroups of premenopausal women and those aged < 55 years old. In addition, this polymorphism was correlated with the estrogen receptor status, C-erbB-2 status, Ki-67 status, TNM stage, and tumor size of patients with BC. CONCLUSIONS Collectively, the 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.