Purpose: Two previous studies of association between rs2910164 in miR-146a gene and prostate cancer (PCa) risk have provided opposing results. Furthermore, no evidence of association of this SNP with standard prognostic parameters of PCa progression was obtained in mentioned studies. The main aim of this study was to evaluate the possible association between PCa onset and progression to a more aggressive form, since it has not been assessed in a population of European descent.
Methods: In this study, 286 samples of peripheral blood were obtained from patients with PCa, while the control group comprised 199 volunteers derived from general population who gave samples of buccal swabs. For individuals diagnosed with PCa clinicopathological characteristics including serum prostate-specific antigen level at diagnosis, Gleason score (GS), and clinical stage were determined. Genotyping of rs2910164 was performed using Taqman(®) SNP Genotyping Assay. Analysis of SNP association was done using PLINK and SNPStats software.
Results: rs2910164 showed no association with PCa risk. Nevertheless, heterozygous genotype was found to be associated with higher GS, as well as with the presence of distant metastases. rs2910164 was also shown to be associated with cancer aggressiveness (p = 0.0067; ORGC = 2.22, 95 %CI 1.24-3.97; ORCC = 0.47, 95 %CI 0.13-1.68).
Conclusions: Our results show no evidence of association between rs2910164 and PCa risk in Serbian population. Conversely, this variant was found to be associated with PCa aggressiveness.