Background: E-selectin, an intercellular adhesion molecule that plays important roles in metastasis of tumor cells, has a polymorphism in exon 4 that results in the substitution of a serine by an arginine within the extracellular domain of the receptor, which increases its affinity for ligands. No evidence exist on the role of E-selectin polymorphism in pancreatic cancer.
Methods: Eighty pancreatic cancer patients and 160 cases of normal healthy control subjects were investigated for genotype and allelic frequencies of S128R polymorphism of E-selectin gene by PCR-RFLPs.
Results: The frequencies for "AA," "CA," and "CC" genotypes were 46.25%, 50%, and 3.75% in patients, and 63.75%, 26.9%, and 9.4% in healthy subjects, respectively. The "C" carriers group of patients ("CA + CC" genotype) and the "C" allele were over-represented among the pancreatic cancer cases (P = 0.012 and 0.096, respectively). Advanced T stage, the presence of lymph node and other adverse pathologic characteristics were not significantly correlated with either the "CA + CC" genotype group of patients or the presence of "C" allele.
Conclusions: E-selectin S128R "C" allele may confer an increased susceptibility to pancreatic cancer development, while its carriage status does not appear to be related to the aggressive features of this malignancy.