Association between HRAS rs12628 and rs112587690 polymorphisms with the risk of melanoma in the North American population

Med Oncol. 2012 Dec;29(5):3456-61. doi: 10.1007/s12032-012-0255-3. Epub 2012 May 22.

Abstract

HRAS belongs to the RAS genes superfamily. RAS genes are important players in several human tumors and the single-nucleotide polymorphism rs12628 has been shown to contribute to the risk of bladder, colon, gastrointestinal, oral, and thyroid carcinoma. We hypothesized that this SNP may affect the risk of cutaneous melanoma as well. HRAS gene contains a polymorphic region (rs112587690), a repeated hexanucleotide -GGGCCT- located in intron 1. Three alleles of this region, P1, P2, and P3, have been identified that contain two, three, and four repeats of the hexanucleotide, respectively. We investigated the clinical impact of these polymorphisms in a case-control study. A total of 141 melanoma patients and 118 healthy donors from the North America Caucasian population were screened for rs12628 and rs112587690 polymorphisms. Genotypes were assessed by capillary sequencing or fragment analysis, respectively, and rs12628 CC and rs112587690 P1P1 genotypes significantly associated with increased melanoma risk (OR = 3.83, p = 0.003; OR = 11.3, p = 0.033, respectively), while rs112587690 P1P3 frequency resulted significantly higher in the control group (OR = 0.5, p = 0.017). These results suggest that rs12628 C homozygosis may be considered a potential risk factor for melanoma development in the North American population possibly through the linkage to rs112587690.

MeSH terms

  • Genetic Predisposition to Disease / genetics*
  • Genotype
  • Humans
  • Melanoma / genetics*
  • North America
  • Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide / genetics*
  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins p21(ras) / genetics*
  • Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Risk Factors
  • Skin Neoplasms / genetics*
  • White People

Substances

  • HRAS protein, human
  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins p21(ras)