Genetic polymorphisms of the renin-angiotensin system in breast cancer patients.

BACKGROUND Breast cancer (BC) is one of the most common cancer pathologies in women. Genetic polymorphism of genes of renin-angiotensin system (RAS) is considered to be associated with cancer development, in particular, with BC. AIM To study the influence of polymorphic variants of genes coding for RAS components, on the risk of BC development in Ukrainian women. MATERIALS AND METHODS In the study 131 patients with histologically proven diagnosis of BC of I and II stages were enrolled. The control group was composed from 102 women without cancer. Polymorphic variants of AGT, ACE, AT2R1 genes were studied with the use of PCR and PCR-RFLP methods. RESULTS It has been revealed that the presence of 1166АС genotype of AT2R1 gene elevates the risk of BC development nearly 2-fold. The results of analysis for common group and subgroups distributed by age are different. For women from 18 to 35 years old the significant differences were not found. For women from 36 to 54 years old an increased risk of BC development is determined by the presence of D allele of АСЕ gene. Decreased risk of BC development was associated with the presence of combined genotypes ACE II/AGT 174TT and ACE II/AGT 235МТ. In women older than 54 years an increased risk of BC development was found to be related to the presence of genotypes 235ТT of AGT gene and 1166АС of AT2R1 gene. The presence of genotype combinations AGT 235ТТ/AGT 174ТМ and AGT 235ТТ/AT2R1 1166AA in women of this age subgroup also significantly increases the risk of BC development. CONCLUSION These polymorphic gene variants and their associations may be considered as possible prognostic markers of BC development. The results of analysis are different in total cohort and in subgroups distributed by age.