Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) Gene Polymorphisms and Breast Cancer Risk in a Chinese Population

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a potent regulator of angiogenesis and thereby involved in thedevelopment and progression of solid tumours. Associations between three VEGF gene polymorphisms (-634G/C, +936 C/T, and +1612 G/A) and breast cancer risk have been extensively studied, but the currently availableresults are inconclusive. Our aim was to investigate associations between three VEGF gene polymorphisms andbreast cancer risk in Chinese Han patients. We performed a hospital-based case-control study including 680female incident breast cancer patients and 680 female age-matched healthy control subjects. Polymerase chainreaction restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) analysis was performed to detect the threeVEGF gene polymorphisms. We observed that women carriers of +936 TT genotypes [odds ratio (OR) =0.46,95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.28, 0.76; P=0.002] or 936 T-allele (OR=0.81, 95% CI= 0.68, 0.98; P=0.03) hada protective effect concerning the disease. Our study suggested that the +1612G/A polymorphism was unlikelyto be associated with breast cancer risk. The -634CC genotype was significantly associated with high tumoraggressiveness [large tumor size (OR=2.63, 95% CI=1.15, 6.02; P=0.02) and high histologic grade (OR=1.47,95% CI= 1.06, 2.03; P=0.02)]. The genotypes were not related with other tumor characteristics such as regionalor distant metastasis, stage at diagnosis, or estrogen or progesterone receptor status. Our study revealed thatthe VEGF -634 G/C and +936 C/T gene polymorphisms may be associated with breast cancer in Chinese Hanpatients.