Fas/APO-1 promoter polymorphism is not associated with non-melanoma skin cancer.

Introduction NMSC incidence is increasing at an alarming rate (1), and the majority of NMSC is likely attributable to UV exposure. An important biological effector of UV exposure is the Fas receptor, which in cooperation with Fas ligand induces apoptosis in keratinocytes after UV exposure (2). The gene encoding Fas, TNFRSF6, contains a promoter single nucleotide polymorphism at position 2670 that disrupts a GAS transcription factor binding sequence (3). Fas mRNA and protein are both induced after UV exposure (4), indicating that the regulation of this gene is important in the cellular response to UV. We tested the hypothesis that the 2670 G/A promoter polymorphism of TNFRSF6 was associated with NMSC.