Abstract

Within the past few years, there has been increasing evidence that the genetic variation in the genes coding pro- and anti-inflammatory markers may play an important role in the pathogenesis of various human cancers, including gastric cancer. The aim of the study was to evaluate the association of Interleukin- 10 (IL-10)-1082 G/A and -592 C/A promoter polymorphism with gastric cancer in a North Indian population from Kashmir valley, using a PCR-RFLP approach. In this study, 102 gastric cancer patients and 156 age, sex, dwelling and blood group matched healthy controls were included. Association between genotypes and gastric cancer was examined by odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) and Chi-square analysis. In our study, it was observed that significant difference exists between the patients and healthy controls, in genotypic distribution as well as allelic frequency (p < 0.05) in case of -1082 and not with -592 polymorphism. We also found significant association of the IL 10-1082 with EGD biopsy, blood group (A+ve), hot salt tea consumption, sex and dwelling. Dwelling showed highest association (P>0.0001) with gastric cancer. Our results suggest that A allele of IL-10 gene is an important genetic risk factor for Gastric cancer in the North Indian population from ethnic Kashmiri population. However, this is a preliminary study and the results need to be confirmed in a larger cohort.

Key words: Gastric cancer, inflammation, Kashmir valley, polymorphism