Elsevier

Annals of Epidemiology

Volume 15, Issue 8, September 2005, Pages 631-632
Annals of Epidemiology

Abstract
Alcohol drinking, tobacco smoking, LIG1 polymorphisms and head and neck cancers risk

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annepidem.2005.06.006Get rights and content

Purpose

Alcohol and tobacco are known to be associated with the development of head and neck cancers, including oralpharyngeal, laryngeal and esophageal cancers. LIG1 is involved in DNA replication and for sealing single-strand breaks; thus, it plays an important role in nucleotide excision repair (NER) and long-patch base-excision repair (BER). The A → C polymorphism in exon 6 might affect the transcription and/or translation and consequently influence the DNA repair capacity. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the associations between the polymorphisms of LIG1 and the head and neck cancers risk, and to investigate the potential interactions between the polymorphisms and the environmental factors.

Methods

This study was a population-based case-control study with 601 head and neck cancer cases and 1040 population controls in Los Angeles County. Epidemiological data were collected by face-to-face interviews using a standard questionnaire. Laboratory analysis on the genetic polymorphisms of LIG1 was performed with PCR-RFLP. Unconditional logistic regression model was employed in data analysis.

Results

The results showed an OR = 1.1 (95% CI 0.8 – 1.5) for AA vs. AC and CC, adjusting for age, sex, alcohol drinking and tobacco smoking. In addition, the joint effect analysis showed an adjusted OR of 7.5 (95% CI 3.0 – 18.3) for those who drank more than 25 alcohol/dayyears, smoked more than 40 pack-years and were with AA LIG1 genotype (versus less than 25 alcohol/dayyears, less than 40 pack-years and with AC/CC LIG1 genotype).

Conclusion

The analysis suggested there was weak evidence of the association between LIG1 polymorphisms and head and neck cancers risk. Nonetheless, the results implied a strong modifying effect of both the alcohol and tobacco combined for the effect of LIG1 polymorphisms on the risk of head and neck cancers.

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