Association study between miR-149 gene polymorphism and nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Association studies between single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs2292832 on miR-149 gene and cancer risk have been previously analyzed in several types of cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between miR-149 polymorphism and risk of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). miR-149 gene polymorphism was genotyped using polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) in 158 patients with NPC and 242 healthy individuals. Associations with cancer risk and clinicopathological characteristics were analyzed by χ2 test. No significant difference was observed for miR-149 gene polymorphism in NPC patients and healthy controls in either genotype (P=0.427 for CC vs. CT vs. TT, P=0.247 for CT vs. TT and P=0.323 for CC vs. TT, respectively) or allelic analysis (P=0.216). No significant difference was noted between the genotypes and the clinicopathological parameters examined with the exception of clinical stage. A significantly higher CC distribution in clinical stage I-II compared with III-IV was observed under the dominant model (CC vs. CT vs. TT, P=0.026) and the co-dominant model (CC vs. TT, P=0.030). The results of this study suggested that the CC genotype of miR-149 contributes to the progression and development, rather than the initiation of NPC.