Esophageal cancer was the fifth most commonly diagnosed cancer and the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death in China in 2009. Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) accounts for more than 90% of esophageal cancers. Besides environmental risk factors, genetic factors such as single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) play an important role in ESCC carcinogenesis. We performed a hospital-based case-control study to evaluate the Forkhead-box protein A1 (FOXA1) rs12894364 C > T, rs2145146 C > A and rs7144658 T > C tag SNPs in the risk of developing ESCC. We recruited 629 ESCC cases and 686 controls. Genotypes were determined using ligation detection reaction. Logistic regression analyses revealed that the three FOXA1 SNPs were not associated with ESCC risk. However, there was significantly decreased ESCC risk associated with the FOXA1 rs12894364 C > T and rs2145146 C > A polymorphisms among older patients. There was significantly increased ESCC risk associated with the FOXA1 rs7144658 T > C polymorphism among male patients. This study demonstrates an association between FOXA1 polymorphisms and ESCC susceptibility. Additional larger studies are required to confirm our findings.
Keywords: Esophageal cancer; FOXA1; molecular epidemiology; polymorphisms.