Role of +405C>G and +936C>T Polymorphisms of the Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Gene and Risk of Esophageal Cancer in the Kashmiri Population

Background: The gene for the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), which promotes angiogenesis andpermeability, is polymorphic. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the relationship between +936C>Tand +404C>G polymorphism of VEGF with risk of esophageal cancer in the Kashmiri population in India.Materials and Methods: 150 esophageal cancer patients and 150 unrelated healthy controls were genotyped fortwo VGEF SNPs (+405C/G, and +936C/T) using DNA extracted from prospectively collected blood samples bythe PCR-RFLP method. Results: For the VEGF +936C>T polymorphism a significant association of CT andcombined CT+TT genotypes was observed with increased risk of esophageal cancer (p=0.021; 0.024). For the+405C>G polymorphism we observed significantly increased frequency of GG genotype in cases as comparedto controls and also the +405 GG Genotype was observed to have a two fold risk(OR=2.7356; 95%CI=1.1409-6.5593; p=0.020). The combined genotypes of GG-CC and GG-CT of +405C>G and +936C>T were found tobe significantly associated with increased risk of esophageal cancer (p=0.0376; 0.0099). Conclusions: From theresults of the present study a significant association of +936C>T and +405C>G polymorphisms with increasedesophageal cancer risk exists in the Kashmiri population.