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Interleukin 6 G−174 C polymorphism and breast cancer risk

  • Cancer
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Abstract

Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a growth factor involved in many processes including carcinogenesis. The C allele of the G−174 C promoter single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the IL-6 gene decreases levels of IL-6 expression and it has been studied in the context of breast cancer progression yielding contradicting results. Furthermore a recent study found that carriers of the C allele were at an increased risk for this disease. We aim to evaluate the association between this variant and breast cancer risk in Caucasian postmenopausal women. Women participating in the Rotterdam Study (N=3822), including 171 patients with breast cancer were genotyped for this polymorphism. In order to assess the relationship between this SNP and breast cancer we carried out a logistic regression in relation to the incidence of breast cancer. The C allele frequency was 41.3% and the genotypes followed Hardy–Weinberg distribution (p=0.3). The logistic regression analysis showed a slight increase of risk for C allele carriers (odds ratio=1.24, 95% CI: 0.8–1.9), compared to non-carriers of this allele. This increased risk was not statistically significant. Our data suggest that the IL-6 G−174 C polymorphism does not seem to play a role in breast cancer risk, although its role as a prognostic factor remains to be studied.

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Acknowledgments

A. Arias Vasquez is supported by a grant from the Centre of Medical Systems Biology, grant #297-2003. The Rotterdam Study is supported by the Erasmus Medical Center and Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw), the Research Institute for Diseases in the Elderly (RIDE), the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports, the European Commission (DG XII), and the Municipality of Rotterdam.

These sponsors had no role in study design, data collection, data interpretation, or the writing of this report.

Contributions. A. Arias Vásquez contributed with the design of the study and also participated in the data analyses. C van Duijn participated in the design and writing of the manuscript. J Witteman, A Uiterlinden, JW Coebergh, BHCh Stricker and A Hofman aided in the data collection and the writing of this manuscript as well.

The authors would like to thank Mr. P.P. Arp, M.Sc. for his contributions to the genotyping procedure.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics Department, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    A. M. González-Zuloeta Ladd, A. Arias Vásquez, J. Witteman, A. G. Uitterlinden, J. W. Coebergh, A. Hofman, B. H. Ch. Stricker & C. M. van Duijn

  2. Department of Internal Medicine, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    A. G. Uitterlinden

  3. Epidemiology & Biostatistics Department, Erasmus Medical Center, 1738, 3000 DR, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    C. M. van Duijn

Authors
  1. A. M. González-Zuloeta Ladd
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  2. A. Arias Vásquez
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  3. J. Witteman
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  4. A. G. Uitterlinden
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  5. J. W. Coebergh
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  6. A. Hofman
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  7. B. H. Ch. Stricker
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  8. C. M. van Duijn
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to C. M. van Duijn.

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González-Zuloeta Ladd, A.M., Arias Vásquez, A., Witteman, J. et al. Interleukin 6 G−174 C polymorphism and breast cancer risk. Eur J Epidemiol 21, 373–376 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-006-9005-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-006-9005-1

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