Positive association between vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) -2578 C/A variant and prostate cancer.

BACKGROUND Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) gene is an important angiogenesis regulator related to cancer development and progression. We evaluated the association between -2578 C/A (rs699947) VEGF polymorphism and PCa in Mexican subjects, to contribute to knowledge of VEGF role in genetic epidemiology of prostate cancer (PCa). OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between -2578 C/A VEGF variant and PCa in Mexican population. METHODS A total of 249 men (77 PCa cases and 172 controls) from the Northwestern region of Mexico were screened for the -2578 C/A VEGF variant. The polymorphism was determined by polymerase chain reaction-based restriction analysis. RESULTS Genotype frequencies for C/C, C/A, and A/A, were 0.48, 0.49, 0.03 for cases and 0.41, 0.45, 0.14 for controls respectively. Genotype A/A of -2578 VEGF variant reduces the risk of PCa in an 84% among studied population (Odds Ratio 0.16; 95% CI: 0.04-0.71, P=0.007). C/C carriers showed an increased PCa risk of 6.1 times among the study population. CONCLUSIONS Inheritance of -2578 A/A genotype of VEGF gene may modify PCa susceptibility risk in Mexican population.