Background: Caveolin-1, which has been proposed as a candidate tumor suppressor, plays a regulatory role in several signaling pathways. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between oral cancer susceptibility and Cav-1 genotypes. In this hospital-based case-control study, the association of Cav-1 polymorphisms with oral cancer risk in a central Taiwanese population was investigated.
Methods: Six hundred patients with oral cancer and 620 age- and sex-matched healthy control subjects were genotyped and analyzed by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism.
Results: There were significant differences between oral cancer and control groups in the distributions of their genotypes (P = 1.7 × 10(-18) and 2.6 × 10(-4)) and allelic frequencies (P = 3.3 × 10(-19) and 9.5 × 10(-6)) in the Cav-1 G14713A (rs3807987) and T29107A (rs7804372) polymorphisms, respectively. As for the combined genotype analysis, those who had GG/AT or GG/AA at Cav-1 G14713A/T29107A showed a 0.72-fold (95% confidence interval = 0.52-0.99) decreased risk of oral cancer compared to those with GG/TT, while those of any other combinations were of increased risk. The presence of metastasis was also correlated to both Cav-1 G14713A AA and Cav-1 T29107A TT genotypes.
Conclusions: Cav-1 is involved in oral cancer, the A allele of the Cav-1 G14713A is risky, the A allele of the Cav-1 T29107A is protective, and AA/TT on these two polymorphisms may be the most risky combined genotype for the development of oral cancer and may be novel risk markers for early detection and prediction of distant metastasis.