Prohibitin expression deregulation in gastric cancer is associated with the 3' untranslated region 1630 C>T polymorphism and copy number variation.

PHB is a reported oncogene and tumor suppressor in gastric cancer. Here, we evaluated whether the PHB copy number and the rs6917 polymorphism affect its expression in gastric cancer. Down-regulation and up-regulation of PHB were observed in the evaluated tumors. Reduced expression was associated with tumor dedifferentiation and cancer initiation. The T allele of the rs6917 polymorphism was associated with reduced PHB mRNA levels. Moreover, the up-regulation of PHB appeared to be regulated by the gain of additional gene copies. Thus, PHB copy number variation and differential expression of the rs6917 polymorphism may play a role in PHB transcriptional regulation.