Genetic variants of DNA repair gene XPC modulating susceptibility to cervical cancer in North India.

The objective of the study was to investigate the association of Xeroderma Pigmentoum group C (XPC) Lys939Gln (A>C) and poly (AT) insertion deletion (PAT ―/+) gene polymorphism with the risk of cervical cancer. We enrolled 220 cervical cancer patients and 237 healthy individuals. Polymorphism for XPC gene (Lys939Gln, PAT ―/+) was genotyped by polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism method. XPC Lys939Gln CC genotype was associated with elevated risk of cervical cancer (OR = 2.15, p = 0.036). CC genotype of Lys939Gln (OR = 3.68; p = 0.02) and +/+ genotype of PAT (OR = 7.99; p = 0.01) were observed to have statistically significant elevated risk in stage IV of cervical cancer. Among tobacco users, carriers of the +/+ genotype of PAT showed a borderline significance (OR = 3.72, p = 0.032). Haplotypes A+ and C― (A>C of Lys939Gln, ―>+ of PAT) were significantly associated with higher susceptibility to cervical cancer (OR = 2.01, p = 0.005 and OR = 1.76, p = 0.002, respectively). Polymorphisms and haplotypes in XPC appear to influence cervical cancer risk and may modify risk attributable to tobacco usage.