Background: Over- or underexpression of miR-146a has been reported in several different human tumor types, and a polymorphism in its precursor form (pre-miR-146a rs2910164 G/C) has been recently studied in connection with cancer susceptibility. The aim of the present study was to investigate the possible influence of the pre-miR-146a rs2910164 polymorphism on the risk of squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (HNSCC).
Patients and methods: The study included 468 patients with HNSCC and 468 cancer-free, age-, gender-, and smoking-matched controls. The miR-146a genotypes were determined using polymerase chain reaction with confronting two-pair primers, and their distribution was compared by multivariate binary logistic regression analysis.
Results: Occurrence of heterozygous (odds ratio, OR=1.46, 95% confidence interval, CI=1.10-1.95, p=0.009) and C/C homozygous (OR=2.37, 95% CI=1.01-5.60, p=0.048) individuals was significantly more frequent among patients with HNSCC than in the control group.
Conclusion: The pre-miR/146a C allele may contribute to an increased susceptibility to HNSCC.