Genetic variants at chromosome 9p21, 10p15 and 10q22 and breast cancer susceptibility in a Chinese population.

A recent genome-wide association study (GWAS) has identified a new subset of breast cancer susceptibility loci on chromosomes 9, 10, and 11 in populations of European descent. However, because of the genetic heterogeneity, the role of these loci in non-European descent populations is still unclear. To evaluate the relationships between genetic variants in these regions identified by GWAS and breast cancer risk in Chinese women, we genotyped four common SNPs at 9p21(rs1011970 and rs10757278), 10p15 (rs2380205), and 10q22 (rs1250009) in a two-stage case-control study with a total of 1792 breast cancer cases and 1,867 controls. We found that rs1250009 at 10q22 was consistently associated with risk of breast cancer in stage 1 and stage 2, with a per-allele OR of 1.13 (95% CI 1.02-1.25) after two stages combined (P = 0.023). However, no significant associations were observed between the other three SNPs and breast cancer risk. Our results suggest that the genetic variants at 10q22 may play an important role in breast cancer development in Chinese women, and rs1250009 may be a candidate marker for breast cancer susceptibility.