TP53 and RPA3 gene variations were associated with risk of glioma in a Chinese Han population.

Recent advances in human genetic studies have opened new avenues for the identification of susceptibility genes for many complex genetic disorders, especially in the field of rare cancers such as glioma. Glioma is one of the least understood human tumors and the etiology for glioma is barely known. Hundreds of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are found to be related to the risk of glioma in previous studies. This study is committed to investigate the role of heredity in this disorder. To examine and validate how common variants contribute to glioma susceptibility in the Han Chinese population, we evaluated 12 tagging SNPs in a case-control study in the Chinese Han population from Xi'an city of China (301 cases and 302 controls). Overall, two protective alleles and one risk allele for glioma were found by genetic model analyses. In dominant model, the allele "T" of rs6947203 in the RPA3 gene acts as a protective allele [odds ratio (OR), 0.59; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.22-0.90; p=0.014]. In recessive model, the allele "C" of rs1042522 in the TP53 gene acts as a risk allele (OR, 1.65; 95% CI, 1.05-2.59; p=0.0314). In additive model, the allele "G" of rs4140805 in the RPA3 gene (OR, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.53-0.99; p=0.0437) and the allele "T" of rs6947203 in the RPA3 gene (OR, 0.62; 95% CI, 0.42-0.92; p=0.0177) both act as protective alleles. We also observed a haplotype of "CC" in the TP53 gene with an increased risk of 34% of developing glioma (p=0.0306). Our results, combined with previous studies, ascertain the potential role of the TP53 gene to glioma onset.