Lack of Association of Common Polymorphisms in MUC1 Gene with H. pylori Infection and Non-cardia Gastric Cancer Risk in a Chinese Population

Several lines of evidence support the notion that MUC1 is often aberrantly expressed in gastric cancer, and itis a ligand for Helicobacter pylori. Genetic variation in MUC1 gene may confer susceptibility to H. pylori infectionand gastric cancer. We assessed the association of common polymorphisms in MUC1 gene with H. pylori infectionand non-cardia gastric cancer using an LD-based tag SNP approach in north-western Chinese Han population.A total of four SNPs were successfully genotyped among 288 patients with non-cardia gastric cancer and 281age- and sex-matched controls. None of the tested SNPs was associated with H. pylori infection. SNP rs9426886was associated with a decreased risk of non-cardia gastric cancer, but lost significance after adjustment formultiple testing. Overall, our data indicated that common genetic variations in MUC1 gene might not make amajor contribution to the risk of H. pylori infection and non-cardia gastric cancer in our studied population.