Vitamin D receptor (VDR) polymorphisms and risk of ovarian cancer in Caucasian and African American women

Abstract

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Objective

Polymorphisms in the vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene have been shown in some studies to be associated with the risk of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) in Caucasian women. There are no published reports among African Americans.

Methods

Case–control data from the North Carolina Ovarian Cancer Study were analyzed using logistic regression to determine the association between seven VDR polymorphisms and EOC in both Caucasians (513 cases, 532 controls) and African Americans (74 cases, 79 controls). In a larger sample of African–Americans (125 cases, 155 controls), we assessed associations between six SNPs in proximity of rs7975232.

Results

African American women who carried at least one minor allele of rs7975232 were at higher risk for invasive EOC controlling for age and admixture with an odds ratio (OR) for association under the log-additive model of 2.08 (95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.19, 3.63, p = 0.010). No association was observed between any of the VDR variants and EOC among Caucasians. A larger sample of African Americans revealed a nearly two-fold increased risk of invasive EOC associated with rs7305032, a SNP in proximity to rs7975232 (R² = 0.369) with a log-additive OR of 1.87 (95% CI = 1.20, 2.93, p = 0.006).

Conclusions

This is the first report showing VDR variants associated with ovarian cancer risk in African American women. A larger study of African American women is needed to confirm these findings. These results imply that vitamin D exposure is a possible modifiable risk factor of ovarian cancer among African Americans.

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Highlights

► The OR for the association between ovarian cancer and rs7305032 in the VDR gene was 1.87 among African Americans.
► No association between VDR variants and ovarian cancer was detected among Caucasian women.
► This is the first report showing VDR variants associated with ovarian cancer risk in African American women.