Association between the Length of a CA Dinucleotide Repeat in the c-src Gene and Risk of Prostate Cancer

Src is a non-receptor protein tyrosine kinase that has a crucial role in signaling pathways involved in cell division, motility, adhesion, and survival in cells. To date, there has been no report on the association between polymorphism of CA dinucleotide repeat in the c-src gene and risk of prostate cancer. In this study, the association between CA polymorphism in intron 2 of the c-src gene and the risk of prostate cancer was investigated.
A group of 142 patients with prostate cancer and 135 healthy men were selected. Genomic DNA was extracted from white blood cells and desired sequence was amplified via the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The number of CA repetitions was obtained using polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and sequencing.
Findings: 15 different alleles were identified in 277 subjects; their distribution varied between 13 and 28 repeats. 22 repeat allele was associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer [Odds ratio (OR) = 2.31, P = 0.0005] and men with genotypes 22-CA/20-CA and 22-CA/19-CA were at higher risk of developing prostate cancer (OR = 5.5, P = 0.0001).
Our findings demonstrate that men with 22 CA repeat are at a significantly higher risk of prostate cancer. In conclusion, our result suggests a potential role for this microsatellite as a predictive marker of prostate cancer risk in Iranian men.