Transforming growth factor-β1 gene polymorphism as a potential risk factor in Turkish patients with laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma

Introduction: Laryngeal cancer is the most common head-and-neck malignancies with more than 20% of all cases. The vast majority of tumors are squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Several genes encoding different cytokines may play crucial roles in host susceptibility to cancer because cytokine production capacity varies among individuals and depends on cytokine gene polymorphisms. Materials and Methods: The association between cytokine gene polymorphisms with primary laryngeal SCC was investigated. DNA samples were obtained from a Turkish population of eighty patients with primary cancer and fifty healthy controls. Results: All genotyping (interferon-gamma, transforming growth factor-beta 1 [TGF-beta 1], tumor necrosis factor-alpha [TNF-alpha], interleukin [IL]-6, and IL-10) experiments were performed using polymerase chain reaction sequence-specific primers. When compared to the healthy controls, the frequencies of TGF-beta 1 codon 25 (rs1800471) GC genotype and 25 C allele were significantly more common in the patient group. Conclusions: These results suggest that TGF-beta 1 gene polymorphisms may affect host susceptibility to laryngeal cancer.