No association of the NFKB1 insertion/deletion promoter polymorphism with survival in colorectal and renal cell carcinoma as well as disease progression in B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

PURPOSE: Nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) is an inducible transcription factor that plays a major role in the regulation of genes involved in immune and inflammatory response. Activation of NF-kappaB has also been associated with apoptosis and proliferation, thereby potentially also controlling oncogenesis. A functional insertion/deletion polymorphism has been identified in the promoter region of NFKB1, which apparently controls the transcription of NF-kappaB. The purpose of this study was, therefore, to investigate associations of the -94ins/delATTG polymorphism with susceptibility and survival of patients with different types of cancer.

EXPERIMENTAL

DESIGN

Genotype distributions in patients with colorectal carcinoma (n=139), B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (n=72) and clear cell renal cell carcinoma (n=140), and in controls (n=307) were analyzed by pyrosequencing and compared with each other as well as associated with clinico-pathological parameters and demographic data.

RESULTS

No statistically significant differences in both allele and genotype frequencies were observed between patients and healthy controls. Likewise, no association between -94ins/delATTG alleles and survival or disease progression was noticed.

CONCLUSION

These results suggest that the NFKB1 promoter polymorphism has no effect on risk and course of disease in the three cancer entities that were analyzed.