Background: The authors conducted a hospital-based study of 1110 patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) and a control group of 1129 patients to replicate the associations reported by a recent, large European study between 2 potentially functional single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) genes, a substitution in ADH1B at amino acid 48 from arginine to histidine (R48H) (reference SNP number [rs]1229984; guanine to adenine [G-->A]) and a substitution in ADH7 at amino acid 92 from alanine to glycine (A92G) (rs1573496; cytosine to guanine [C-->G]), and the risk of squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN).
Methods: Multivariate logistic regression was used to calculate adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). False-positive report probabilities (FPRPs) also were calculated for significant findings.
Results: The ADH7 A92G GG and combined CG + GG genotypes were associated with a decreased risk of SCCHN (GG: adjusted OR, 0.32; 95% CI, 0.13-0.82; CG + GG: adjusted OR, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.59-0.94; FPRP, .098) compared with the CC genotype. This association was also evident in subgroups of older patients (aged >57 years), men, former smokers, patients with oral cancer, and patients with N) lymph node status (P < .05 for all); however, such associations were not observed for the ADH1B R48H SNP.
Conclusions: The current results support the ADH7 A92G SNP as a marker for the risk of SCCHN in non-Hispanic white populations.