Background: Reduced expression of Fas and/or increased expression of FasL is known to exist in some cancer types including lung cancer, so the Fas/FasL system may play a role in the course of cancer. Lack of cell surface Fas expression is one of the main routes of apoptotic resistance in tumor formation and progression. Functional mutations in the Fas gene that impair apoptotic signal transduction are associated with susceptibility to various types of cancer. In this study, we focused on lung cancer.
Patients and methods: The genotypic tendencies that may occur due to a specific point mutation (Fas-1377 G -->A) on promoter region for Fas were evaluated.
Results: We did not find any relationship between Fas-1377 G-->A polymorphism and lung cancer. But there was a significantly higher number of AG patients who smoked than GG ones.
Conclusion: There was no relationship between Fas-1377 G-->A polymorphism and lung cancer, but it was statistically significant that smoking might increase the possibility of creating lung cancer in AG genotypes more than in other genotypes.