Association of vascular endothelial growth factor gene polymorphisms and breast cancer

Background:It is believed that angiogenesis is crucial for the development and metastasis of malignanttumors. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a key mediator of this process and as aresult acts in tumor invasion. This study was performed to elucidate the distribution of allelesand genotypes of three functional VEGF polymorphisms and its association with breastcancer risk.Materials and Methods:We performed a case–control study including 125 female patients with pathologically provenbreast cancer and 121female age-matched healthy control subjects. We selected three VEGFcandidate polymorphisms -1154A/G (rs1570360), -634C/G (rs2010963) and -460C/T(rs833061) and determined the frequency of alleles and genotypes by the Quantitative Real-Time PCR assay.Results:The results showed that the frequency of -460T/T genotype was 40 percent among breastcancer patients which was significantly higher than that in control group (P=0.01). Atposition -634, the frequency of the homozygous C/C genotype was higher among the patientsthan that in control group (P=0.01). At position -1154, the frequency of G/G and A/Ggenotypes were significantly higher in patient group than those in control group (P=0.03 andP=0.05 consecutively).Conclusion:This study suggests that VEGF -460T/T, -634C/C, -1154G/G and -1154A/G genotypes mightbe associated with breast cancer risk. Large studies are needed to confirm our findings.

کلیدواژه ها:

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) ، Polymorphisms ، Breast cancer