Relationship between LAPTM4B gene polymorphism and susceptibility of primary liver cancer

Lysosome associated protein transmembrane 4 beta (LAPTM4B) was identified first as a novel gene overexpressed in human hepatocellular carcinoma. LAPTM4B*1 and LAPTM4B*2 are two alleles of the gene; they are differentiated at 5'UTR in the first exon. Allele *1 contains only one copy of a 19-bp sequence in the 5'UTR. However, allele *2 contains another identical 19-bp sequence following the first one tightly. In this case-control study, we aimed to identify the relationship between LAPTM4B gene polymorphism and the susceptibility of primary liver cancer. The case-control study was conducted in China, including 303 primary liver cancer cases and 515 controls. LAPTM4B gene polymorphism was determined by PCR. Statistical analysis includes odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) calculations using unconditional logistic regression. We found a significant difference in the frequency of LAPTM4B*2 between cases and controls (P < 0.05). Our study showed that LAPTM4B*1/2 and *2/2 were associated with a significantly increased risk of primary liver cancer compared with LAPTM4B*1/1 (OR = 1.898, 95% CI = 1.387-2.598 and OR = 2.483, 95% CI = 1.480-4.168, respectively). The genotypes of LAPTM4B in this study have negative correlation with the clinicopathologicals observed. The evidences suggest that gene polymorphism of LAPTM4B may influence the individuals' susceptibility to primary liver cancer and allele *2 being considered as a potential risk factor.