Association of trinucleotide-repeat-containing 9 (TNRC9) SNP with the risk of breast cancer in Egyptians

Abstract

Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disorder for which the underlying genetic basis remains unclear. The current study was conducted to evaluate the possible association between trinucleotide-repeatcontaining 9 (TNRC9) genetic variants and breast cancer risk in Egyptian women. Genotyping of the rs12443621 polymorphism of the TNRC9 gene by real time PCR (RT-PCR) on 100 female breast cancer patients and 80 healthy female controls was done. Breast cancer patients have significantly decreased age at menarche compared to control. Breast feeding and parity are associated with reduced breast cancer risk. The homozygous GG genotype and G allele were more frequent in the breast cancer group than in control subjects. The GG genotype frequency was associated with 2.8 times higher risk of breast cancer than AA genotype, also the G allele was associated with 1.9 times higher risk of breast cancer than A allele. The distribution of the TNRC9 rs12443621 polymorphism was significantly associated with both estrogen and progesterone receptor status. The combined AG and GG genotypes were not significantly associated with the presence of metastasis and Her2/neu status (P=0.89 and 0.49, respectively). From this study, it could be concluded that, a significant association was found between the GG genotype of TNRC9 rs12443621 and elevated breast cancer risk and signifies the TNRC9 rs12443621 G allele as being a potential risk factor for breast cancer. Further larger population-based studies are needed to confirm the prognostic value of this polymorphism in Egyptian women.

Keywords: TNRC9 gene, Her2-neu, real time PCR, breast cancer.