association of catechol-o-methyl transferase gene polymorphism with prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia

background : a single nucleotide variation within  atechol-o-methyl transferase (comt) gene may alter the comt enzyme activity level. polymorphism of val158met in the comt gene has been related to malignancy. in this regard, a study was carried out to find a possible association between the comt gene polymorphism in patients with sporadic prostate cancer (pca) and benign prostatic hyperplasia (bph). methods : all types of comt158 val/met polymorphism were carried out using aso-pcr method in 41 patients with prostate cancer, 193 patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia and 107 healthy male individuals. results : the results of this study showed that the frequency of low producer allele a at codon 158 of the  omt gene is significantly different in bph group compared to normal male control group (or, 95% ci, p value 1.95: 1.46, 2.44, 0.021, respectively). however no significant difference was noticed when the comparison was made between prostate cancer group and normal male control group and also between bph and pca groups. conclusions : decreased level of catechol-o-methyl transferase gene activity may play a possible role in benign prostatic hyperplasia development but not in prostate cancer. increased level of comt gene activity has a protective role against bph. keywords : prostate cancer, benign prostatic  yperplasia, comt 158val/met polymorphism.