Association between SNPs in Wnt signaling pathway genes and ovarian cancer risk in Northern Chinese population

Objective: Wnt signaling pathway is important for tumorigenesis, due to its regulation of many critical biological processes, while the association between SNPs in Wnt pathway genes and ovarian cancer risk has not been established in Chinese, the authors performed a large case control study to analyze this association. Materials and Methods: A case control study was designed including 732 ovarian cancer cases and 765 controls. A total of six SNPs in five core genes in Wnt pathway were genotyped in all the samples. Logistic regression analysis was performed to evaluate the association between SNPs and ovarian cancer risk, odds ratios (ORs), and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated. Results: In the univariate analysis, among the six SNPs, the authors found two SNPs significantly associated with ovarian cancer risk. One is SNP rs4135385 in beta-catenin gene, compared with AA genotype, GG genotype was associated with a significant lower risk of ovarian cancer, OR=0.62; 95% CI (0.45, 0.87). The other is SNP rs6485350 in DKK3 gene, compared with GG genotype, AA genotype was associated with a significant lower risk of ovarian cancer, OR=0.73; 95% CI (0.55, 0.98). In the multivariate analysis adjusting for common demographic variable, the authors found SNP rs4135385 in beta-catenin gene significantly associated with ovarian cancer risk, Compared with AA genotype, GG genotype was associated with a significant lower risk of ovarian cancer, OR=0.57; 95% CI (0.40, 0.79),p=0.006. After Bonferroni's correction for six SNPs, this SNP rs4135385 was still significantly associated with ovarian cancer risk. Conclusion: In this case control study, the authors found significant association between SNP in beta-catenin gene and ovarian cancer risk in Northern Chinese and further studies are warranted to validate their finding and investigate the mechanism for the association.