Objective: We assessed whether the functional V16A polymorphism in the MnSOD gene is associated with skin cancer risk.
Methods: We conducted a nested case-control study (219 melanoma, 286 squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), and 300 basal cell carcinoma (BCC) cases, and 873 matched controls) within the Nurses' Health Study. Genotyping was performed by the 5' nuclease assay (TaqMan). We used logistic regression to model the association between the genotype and skin cancer risk.
Results and conclusions: Overall, there was no significant association between this polymorphism and the risk of each type of skin cancer. No significant interaction was observed between this polymorphism and sunburn history and constitutional susceptibility on skin cancer risk. For interactions between intakes of alpha-carotene and beta-carotene and the MnSOD polymorphism on SCC, the inverse association of intake of either carotene with SCC risk was limited to the Val carriers, whereas no association was observed among women with the AA genotype. We observed an interaction between total vitamin C intake and the MnSOD polymorphism on melanoma risk. No interaction was observed for the intakes of other carotenoids, vitamin E, and vitamin A. Further research is needed to confirm these possible associations.