Association between NEFL Gene Polymorphisms and Neuroblastoma Risk in Chinese Children: A Two-Center Case-Control Study

Neuroblastoma is a lethal tumor that mainly occurs in children. To date, the genetic etiology of sporadic neuroblastoma remains obscure. A previous study identified three neuroblastoma susceptibility loci (rs11994014 G>A, rs2979704 T>C, rs1059111 A>T) in neurofilament light (NEFL) gene. Here, we attempted to evaluate the contributions of these three single nucleotide polymorphisms to neuroblastoma susceptibility in Chinese children. We genotyped these three polymorphisms using subjects from Guangdong province (256 cases and 531 controls) and Henan province (118 cases and 281 controls). Logistic regression models were performed to generate odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals to access the association of these three polymorphisms with neuroblastoma risk. Overall, we failed to provide any evidence supporting the association between these three polymorphisms and neuroblastoma susceptibility, either in single center population or in the combined population. Moreover, such null association was also observed when the samples were stratified by age, gender, tumor sites, and clinical stages. In the future, larger samples from different ethnicities are needed to clarify the role of NEFL gene polymorphisms in neuroblastoma risk.