Affiliations: Department of Internal Medicine, Division of
Respiratory Medicine, Philipps-University of Marburg, Germany | Institute of Medical Biometry and Epidemiology,
Philipps-University of Marburg, Germany | Division of Haematology and Oncology,
Philipps-University of Marburg, Germany
Note: [] Corresponding author: Carola Seifart, MD, Department of Internal
Medicine, Division of Respiratory Medicine, Philipps-University of Marburg,
Baldingerstraße, 35043 Marburg, Germany. Tel.: +49 6421 2866451; Fax: +49
6421 2868987; E-mail: zwiebel@mailer.uni-marburg.de
Abstract: Apart from cigarette smoking, genetic factors seem to be of
importance in the development of lung cancer. The present case-control study
investigated frequencies of five inflammatory response gene polymorphisms
(TNF-α-308, TNF-β-Intron1-252, IL-6-174, IL-10-819 and IL-10-1082)
in patients with lung cancer and controls. The study population consisted of
117 patients with lung cancer (77 patients with NSCLC, including 40 Squamous
Cell Carcinoma and 26 Adenocarcinoma, and 40 patients with SCLC), 117 matched
controls without pulmonary disease and 243 healthy individuals (population
control). Genotype analyses revealed no difference in genotype frequencies
using matched-pair analysis. However, in comparison to the population control,
the IL-10-1082 genotypes carrying the G allele appeared with higher frequency
in the SCLC group (p=0.006) [SCLC: 84.6%, population controls: 64.6%]. This
yields an odds ratio of 3.01 for SCLC (95% CI = [1.21, 7.48]). No associations
were seen for all other polymorphisms analysed. The study raises the possibility of a correlation between the
IL-10-1082_G allele and the presence of SCLC in a German population. The
functional IL-10-1082 polymorphism correlates with altered IL-10 levels and
might influence lung cancer susceptibility by altered inflammatory responses in
the airways.
