Adalet Demir1, Sedat Altin1, Davut Pehlivan2, Mulahim Demir1, Fatih Yakar3, Ekrem Cengiz Seyhan1, Seyyit Ibrahim Dincer1
1Yedikule Teaching Hospital for Chest Diseases and Thoracic Surgery, Depertmant of Thoracic Surgery, Istanbul, Turkey
2Istanbul University, Istanbul Medical Faculty, Department of Medical Genetics, Istanbul, Turkey
3Istanbul University, Istanbul Medical Faculty, Department of Chest Diseases, Istanbul, Turkey
DOI: 10.1186/1477-3163-6-13
ABSTRACT
Background
Glutathione S-transferase (GSTs) plays an important role in the detoxification of many xenobiotics involved in the etiology of cancer. In different ethnic groups, variations in null allele frequency have been observed. We have investigated GSTM1 gene polymorphisms in healthy subjects and lung cancer patients in the Turkish population and reviewed the control subjects of the studies performed in the Turkish population.
Methods
Following blood sampling from patients and controls, DNA samples were extracted from the whole blood and were amplified by using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method in all of the 256 cases, consisting of 102 previously diagnosed with lung cancer and 154 healthy controls.
Results
The prevalence of GSTM1-null genotype in the lung cancer patients was 49%, compared to 52.6% in the control group (OR = 1.39, 95% CI = 0.70-1.90, p = 0.57). There were also no significant relationships in GSTM1 genotypes among histopathologic types of lung cancers (p > 0.05). The frequency of GSTM1 was found to be 41.2% (n = 1809) when the control subjects of the studies performed in Turkish population were reviewed.
Conclusion
We have observed that GSTM1 genotype is not an independent risk factor for lung cancer.