AXIN2 polymorphism and its association with astrocytoma in a Turkish population.

The product of AXIN2, a component of Wnt signalling, plays a role in tumorigenesis and is dysregulated in cancer cells. In order to determine whether the AXIN2 polymorphism is a risk factor for astrocytoma, we analysed eight polymorphic regions of this gene in 100 astrocytoma patients compared to 100 healthy controls in a Turkish population using PCR-RFLP methods. For the Exon1-148 T/C, Exon1-432 C/T, Exon5-1365 G/A, Intron5-1712+19G/T, Exon7-2062 C/T and Intron7-2141+73 G/A SNPs of AXIN2, no significant association between controls and astrocytoma patients was found. For the Exon5-1386 C/T SNP, a statistically significant association between controls and patients was found (p<0.05). For this astrocytoma, patients with the TT genotype showed an increased risk with an OR of 2.92 (adjusted for age, gender and smoking status) (95% CI 1.14-7.47) as compared to the controls with the CC genotype. Our results suggest that AXIN2 SNPs may be associated with astrocytoma.