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Journal of Negative Results in BioMedicine
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Polymorphisms within inflammatory genes and colorectal cancer

Stefano Landi9,1,8*, Federica Gemignani1, Fabio Bottari1, Lydie Gioia-Patricola2, Elisabet Guino3, María Cambray3, Sebastiano Biondo4,6, Gabriel Capella3, Laura Boldrini7,5, Federico Canzian8 and Victor Moreno3,4,6

Author Affiliations

1 Genetics-Department of Biology, University of Pisa, via S. Giuseppe 22, 56126, Pisa, Italy

2 International Agency for Research on Cancer, 150 Cours Albert Thomas, 69372 Lyon, France

3 Institut Catala d'Oncologia, Hospitalet, Barcelona, Spain

4 Laboratori d'Estadistica i Epidemiologia, Facultat de Medicina, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

5 Department of Surgery, AOUP, via Roma 57, 56126, Pisa, Italy

6 Unidad de Cirugía Colorrectal, Hospital Universitario de Bellvitge, Hospitalet, Barcelona, Spain

7 Department of Chirurgic, Area Vasta Nord-Ovest (Toscana), S. Chiara Hospital, Pisa, Italy

8 Genomic Epidemiology Group, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Im NeuenheimerFeld 580, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany

9 IDIBELL, Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge, Hospitalet, Barcelona, Spain

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Journal of Negative Results in BioMedicine 2006, 5:15 doi:10.1186/1477-5751-5-15

Published: 24 October 2006

Abstract

Background

Chronic inflammation is a risk factor for colorectal cancer and polymorphisms in the inflammatory genes could modulate the levels of inflammation. We have investigated ten single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the following inflammation-related genes: TLR4 (Asp299Gly), CD14 (-260 T>C), MCP1 (-2518 A>G), IL12A (+7506 A>T, +8707 A>G, +9177 T>A, +9508 G>A), NOS2A (+524T>C), TNF (-857C>T), and PTGS1 (V444I) in 377 colorectal (CRC) cancer cases and 326 controls from Barcelona (Spain).

Results

There was no statistically significant association between the SNPs investigated and colorectal cancer risk.

Conclusion

The lack of association may show that the inflammatory genes selected for this study are not involved in the carcinogenic process of colorectum. Alternatively, the negative results may derive from no particular biological effect of the analysed polymorphisms in relation to CRC. Otherwise, the eventual biological effect is so little to go undetected, unless analysing a much larger sample size.