Association of interleukin-10 gene polymorphisms with breast cancer in a Chinese population

Backgroud. interleukin-10(il-10) is a multifunctional cytokine with both immunosuppressive and antiangiogenic functions. polymorphisms in the il-10 gene promoter genetically determine interindividual differences in il-10 production. this study was performed to determined whether polymorphisms in the il-10 gene promoter were associated with breast cancer in a chinese han population. methods. we genotyped 315 patients with breast cancer and 322 healthy control subjects for -1082a/g,-819t/c and -592a/c single nucleotide polymorphisms in the promoter region of the il-10 gene by polymerase chain reactionerestriction fragment length polymorphism (pcr-rflp). results. there were no significant differences in genotype,allele,or haplotype frequencies in all three loci between patients and healthy controls. analysis of breast cancer prognostic and predictive factors revealed that the -1082aa genotype was associated with a significantly increased risk of lymph node (ln) involvement (p = 0.041) and larger tumor size (p = 0.039) at the time of diagnosis. furthermore,in the haplotype analysis of il-10 gene,we found that patients carrying ata haplotype were in higher ln involvement (p = 0.022) and higher tumor stage(p = 0.028) of breast cancer at the time of diagnosis compared with others. conclusions. our findings suggest that il-10 promoter polymorphisms participate in the progression of breast cancer rather than in its initial development in chinese han women. © 2010 kong et al; licensee biomed central ltd.