Objectives: Sporadic colorectal cancer is influenced by numerous single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), each with minor effects on the cancer risk. This study seeks to determine whether there is any association of the I1307K, E1317Q and D1822V variants within the Adenomatous polyposis coli gene (APC) and risk to develop colorectal cancer in Tunisian population.
Methods: Direct sequencing was used to investigate three SNPs in the APC in 48 Tunisian sporadic colorectal cancer cases and 63 controls.
Results: There was no statistically significant association between the I1307K, E1317Q and D1822V variants investigated and colorectal cancer risk.
Conclusion: The lack of association may show that these variants selected for this study are not involved in the colorectal carcinogenic process. Otherwise, the eventual biological effect is so little to go undetected, unless increasing the sample size.