1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Catholic University Medical College, Korea. 2Molecular Genetic Laboratory, Catholic Research Institutes of Medical Science, Catholic University Medical College, Korea. 3Department of Medical Genetics, Hanyang University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea. 4Division of Biotechnology, Food and Drug Administration, Korea.
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: The identification of genetic traits that predispose individuals to environmentally induced cancers is one of the challanges in the assessment of individual cancer risk. The genetically determined differences in metabolism, related to glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) have been reported to be associated with various cancer susceptibility. The present study was set up to establish the frequencies of the polymorphic genotypes of two GST (GST- mu and GST-theta) isozymes in Korea, to evaluate a possible increased incidence of the genotypes associated with higher cervical cancer risks among Korean cervical cancer patients.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, extracted DNAs from cervical cancer patients (228 for GST-mu and 241 for GST-theta genotypes) and normal controls (360 for GST-mu and 353 for GST-theta genotypes) were analysed with the polymerase chain reaction (PCR).
RESULTS: The overall genotype distribution of the GST-theta polymorphisms was not statistically different between the patients and control groups. But, in the GST-mu null genotypes, there were remarkable differences between patients and control groups when the cervical cancer patients were devided into subgroups with respect to the age. The frequency of GST-mu null polymorphisms in the cervical cancer patients under the 40 years old was significantly higher compared to the patients above the 40 years old (0.01<P<0.05). In cervical carcinoma, the polymorphic genotypes of GST-mu null were correlated to far advanced clinical stages (stages III and IV) (0.05<P<0.1).
But other parameters including histological type and degree of differentiation were not correlated with GST polymorphism.
CONCLUSION: These results strongly suggest that individuals carrying GST-mu (null) alleles are genetically susceptible to cervical cancer which develops before 40 years of age and GST-mu null genotype may play a some role in cervical cancer progression.
PDF Links
Full text via DOI 
Download Citation 
