A Single Nucleotide Polymorphism in the E-cadherin Gene Promoter -160 is Not Associated with Risk of Korean Gastric Cancer

Recently, the -160 C/A polymorphism, located within the regulatory region of E-cadherin promoter, has been shown to influence E-cadherin transcription by altering transcription factor binding. We examined the effect of this polymorphism on risk of gastric cancer and on histological classification of intestinal- and diffuse-type gastric cancer in 146 normal healthy individuals and 292 Korean gastric cancer patients. Genomic DNA samples were examined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-single strand conformational polymorphism (SSCP)-sequencing and confirmed by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). Unexpectedly, there was no significant difference in the genotype frequencies of the polymorphism between normal control and gastric cancer patients (χ² test, p=0.433). The estimated odd ratio of C/C to A/A genotype in gastric cancer cases was 1.07 (95% confidence interval, 0.396-2.870). We also found no evidence for differences in risk for the intestinal- and diffuse-type gastric cancer. These results suggest that the -160 C/A polymorphism of the E-cadherin has no direct effect on the risk of Korean gastric cancer development and on its histological classification.