Evaluation the susceptibility of five polymorphisms in microRNA-binding sites to female breast cancer risk in Chinese population.

Polymorphisms in microRNA (miRNA) binding site have been widely discussed to be associated with cancer risk; however, the associations were unclear in Chinese population. To investigate the associations of five polymorphisms (rs11097457, rs1434536, rs1970801, rs1044129, rs11169571) in miRNA binding sites with breast cancer risk, a total of 435 female patients with breast cancer and 439 age- and gender-matched tumor-free individuals were enrolled in this case-control study. Sequenom MassARRAY was applied to detect the polymorphisms, and the immunohistochemistry assay was used to measure the expression of estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) and CerbB-2. The data showed that these polymorphisms were not associated with breast cancer risk or clinical characters of breast cancer in all participants and sub-group with the exception that, in the sub-group of women with their first menstruation after 14 years old, those who carried rs1970801 T allele (genotype TT/GT) were associated with decreased breast cancer risk. In short, this case-control study provided the evidence that women with their first menstruation after 14 years old and carried rs1970801 T allele (genotype TT/GT) were associated with decreased breast cancer risk.