Polymorphisms of the DNA repair gene and lung cancer susceptibility

Genetic polymorphisms in DNA repair genes are thought to modulate DNA repair capacity and are suggested to be related to cancer risk. BER pathway, key pathway in the DNA damage repair, is affected by the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of some key enzymes genes. Human 8-oxoguanine glycosy-lase(hOGG1) gene, x-ray repair cross-complementing group 1(XRCC1) gene and MutY homolog (MUTYH) gene are involved in. However, the results of epidemiologic findings have been inconsistent. The author reviewed all published paper which analyzed associations between genes in the base excision repair pathway and lung cancer risk, mainly focusing on hOGG1 Ser326Cys, XRCC1 Arg194Trp, XRCC1 Arg280His, XRCC1 Arg399Gln, XRCC1-77T>C and MUTYHHis324Gln. Also, the author abstracted and analyzed information on genetic variations in BER pathway associating with different pathological type of lung cancer risk and smoking status. There were so many factors that affected the association between gene polymorphisms and lung cancer risk, and more researches are needed to further explore. Key words: BER; hOGG1; XRCCl; MUTYH; Lung cancer