Association of +405C>G and +936C>T polymorphisms of the vascular endothelial growth factor gene with sporadic breast cancer in North Indians.

Background: Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), an endothelial cell specific mitogen, has been implicated as a critical factor influencing tumor related angiogenesis. The aim of present study was to evaluate the relationship between VEGF +936C>T and +405C>G polymorphisms of VEGF with risk of breast cancer in Punjab, India.

Materials And Methods: We screened DNA samples of 192 sporadic breast cancer patients and 192 unrelated healthy, gender and age matched control individuals for VEGF +936C>T and +405C>G polymorphisms using the PCR-RFLP method.

Results: For the VEGF +405C>G polymorphism, we observed significantly increased frequency of GG genotype in cases as compared to controls and strong association of +405GG genotype was observed with three fold risk for breast cancer (OR=3.07; 95%CI 1.41-6.65; p=0.003). For the +936C>T polymorphism, significant associations of CT and combined CT+TT genotypes were observed with elevated risk of breast cancer (p=0.021; 0.023). The combined genotype combinations of GG-CC and GG- CT of +405C>G and +936C>T polymorphisms were found to be significantly associated with increased risk of breast cancer (p=0.04; 0.0064).

Conclusions: The findings of the present study indicated significant associations of VEGF +936C>T and +405C>G polymorphisms with increased breast cancer risk in patients from Punjab, North India.