A study on the relationship between tumor necrosis factor α gene promoter polymorphism and the susceptibility to the development of lung cancer

Objective To observe the single nucleotide polymorphism of TNF-α gene promoter-308 in lung cancer and control groups and its effect on the expression of TNF-αgene. Methods The polyorphism of TNF-α gene promoter-308 nucleotide was analyzed by PCR-RFLP in 112 patients with lung cancer and control group. The expression of TNF-αwas detected by immnohistochemistry assay. Results The distribution of genotype TNF-α1/1,1/2,2/2 were 52.7%,46.5%,35.7%,48.5%,11.6%,5.1% in the patients' group and control groups,respectively. The frequency of allele TNF-α1,TNF-α2 were 70.5%,70.7%,29.5%,29.3% in the patients group and control groups,respectively and there was not statistical difference between the two groups(P0.05). The expression of TNF-α was higher in the patients with lung cancer than that of the control group(P0.01). Conclusion There is no significant difference in the distribution of polymorphism of TNF-α gene promoter-308 nucleotide in the patients with lung cancer and controls group,suggesting that this polymorphism isn't genetic factor for the susceptibility to the development of lung cancer. But it may be related to the expression of it's gene.