Aim: A common inherited RFLP of the L-myc proto-oncogene has been reported to correlate with cancer susceptibility. Our aim was to test the hypothesis that there was association between L-myc S allele in gastric cancer and predisposition to the disease.
Methods: The distribution of L-myc polymorphism in 25 patients with gastric cancer was determined by polymerase chain reaction-based restriction fragment length polymorphism and compared with that of 83 healthy control subjects.
Results: We found a significant difference, both in the distribution of the LL, LS and SS genotypes and in the allelic frequencies, between the control group and the patient group; that is, the frequencies of L-myc alleles were, L and S, 0.52 and 0.48, 0.64 and 0.36, respectively. This difference was primarily the result of a high frequency of the S allele among gastric cancer patients compared to controls. There was a significant difference in the distribution of both genotypes (P = 0.004) and allele frequencies (P = 0.005) between patients with gastric cancer and control groups.
Conclusions: Our results suggested that L-myc polymorphism may be significant in an individual's susceptibility to gastric cancer in Turkey and may be useful for identifying patients at high risk of developing gastric cancer.