Polymorphisms of EpCAM gene and prognosis for non-small-cell lung cancer in Han Chinese

The epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) is overexpressed in a wide variety of human cancers and is associated with patient prognosis, including those with lung cancer. However, the association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the EpCAM gene with the prognosis for non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients has never been investigated. We evaluated the association between two SNPs, rs1126497 and rs1421, in the EpCAM gene and clinical outcomes in a Chinese cohort of 506 NSCLC patients. The SNPs were genotyped using the Sequenom iPLEX genotyping system. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards model and Kaplan-Meier curves were used to assess the association of EpCAM gene genotypes with the prognosis of NSCLC. We found that the non-synonymous SNP rs1126497 was significantly associated with survival. Compared with the CC genotype, the CT+TT genotype was a risk factor for both death (hazard ratio, 1.40; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.02-1.94; P = 0.040) and recurrence (hazard ratio, 1.34; 95% CI, 1.02-1.77; P = 0.039). However, the SNP rs1421 did not show any significant effect on patient prognosis. Instead, the AG+GG genotype in rs1421 was significantly associated with early T stages (T1/T2) when compared with the AA genotype (odds ratio for late stage = 0.65; 95% CI, 0.44-0.96, P = 0.029). Further stratified analysis showed notable modulating effects of clinical characteristics on the associations between variant genotypes of rs1126497 and NSCLC outcomes. In conclusion, our study indicated that the non-synonymous SNP rs1126497 may be a potential prognostic marker for NSCLC patients.