Association between lncrna PCGEM1 polymorphisms and prostate cancer risk

BACKGROUND: Prostate cancer (PCa) gene expression marker 1 (PCGEM1), a long noncoding RNA, has drawn increasing attention for its important role in PCa. However, the association between genetic variations in the PCGEM1 gene and risk of PCa has not been investigated yet. METHODS: We investigated the effect of two tagging single-nucleotide polymorphism (tSNPs; rs6434568 and rs16834898) in PCGEM1 gene on PCa risk in the Chinese men. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to assess the association. RESULTS: We found a significantly decreased risk of PCa for rs6434568 AC and AC/AA genotype (adjusted OR = 0.76, 95% CI = 0.60-0.97 for AC; adjusted OR = 0.76, 95% CI = 0.61-0.96 for AC/AA), as well as rs16834898 AC and AC/CC genotype (adjusted OR = 0.76, 95% CI = 0.59-0.97 for AC; adjusted OR = 0.79, 95% CI = 0.62-0.99 for AC/CC), compared with the CC and AA genotypes, respectively. When we evaluated these two tSNPs together based on the risk alleles (that is, rs6434568 C and rs16834898 A), we found that the combined genotypes with four risk alleles were associated with an increased risk of PCa compared with those carrying 0-3 risk alleles (1.53, 1.19-1.97), and this increased risk was more pronounced among subjects of <= 70 years (1.80, 1.24-2.62), Gleason score <= 7 (1.68, 1.28-2.22) and PSA level >= 20 (1.64, 1.24-2.18). CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicated that PCGEM1 polymorphisms may contribute to PCa risk in Chinese men. Additional functional analyses are required to detect the detailed mechanism underlying the observed association.