Prostate Cancer Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Prostate Cancer, including details on symptoms, genetics, screening, treatment, information.

Association of a genetic polymorphism of the E-cadherin gene with prostate cancer in a Japanese population.

Kamoto T, Isogawa Y, Shimizu Y, Minamiguchi S, Kinoshita H, Kakehi Y, Mitsumori K, Yamamoto S, Habuchi T, Kato T, Ogawa O

Department of Urology, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Shogoin Kawahara-cho 54, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto City, Kyoto 606-8507, Japan.

The E-cadherin gene has been identified as having a physiological role in cellular attachment, and is hypothesized to participate in carcinogenesis. A polymorphism (an A to C substitution) in the 5'-untranslated region has a direct effect on E-cadherin gene transcriptional regulation. We explored the association between E-cadherin gene polymorphism and the risk of prostate cancer in a Japanese population. The subjects consisted of 236 patients with prostate cancer, 209 benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) patients and 139 male controls. A marginally significant difference was found between prostate cancer patients and male controls (P = 0.053). No significant difference was observed between prostate cancer and BPH patients. When patients with prostate cancer were divided into two groups, stage A+B and stage C+D, a significant difference was observed between progressive cancer patients (stage C+D) and male controls (odds ratio = 1.93, P = 0.016). It is possible that the presence of one A allele resulted in an increased risk of cancer progression.

Published 2 March 2005 in Jpn J Clin Oncol, 35(3): 158-61.
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