Genetic polymorphisms of IL-6 and IL-10 genes correlate with lung cancer in never-smoking Han population in China.

Lung cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world, especially in China. It is believed that genetic polymorphisms played a role in cancer susceptibility. Here we investigated the association of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and interleukin-10 (IL-10) gene polymorphisms with the susceptibility of lung cancer in never-smoking Chinese Han population. In this study, we performed a case-control study including 330 cases of never-smoking lung cancer patients and 336 cancer-free never-smoking controls in Chinese Han population. We used polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method to identify gene polymorphisms, and then verified by sequencing method. The results indicated that the four single nucleotide polymorphisms (IL-6 -1363T/G and -572G/C, IL-10 -819T/C and -592A/C) were genotyped by PCR-RFLP and confirmed by sequencing, and we found that the allelic frequencies of G in IL-6 -1363T/G, C in IL-10 -819T/C and C in IL-10 -592A/C were significantly increased in lung cancer patients, by comparing with the control group. However, there was no significant difference in the distribution of the IL-6 572G/C polymorphisms between patients and controls. In conclusion, the IL-6 -1363T/G, IL-10 -819T/C and IL-10 -592A/C polymorphisms are closely related to genetic susceptibility to lung cancer in never-smoking Chinese Han population, and these genetic variants might be used as molecular markers for detecting lung cancer susceptibility.