HPC2/ELAC2 polymorphisms and prostate cancer risk:: analysis by age of onset of disease

The candidate prostate cancer susceptibility gene HPC2/ELAC2 has two common coding polymorphisms: (Ser-->Leu217) and (Ala-->Thr541). The Thr541 variant in the HPC2/ELAC2 gene has previously been reported to be at an increased frequency in prostate cancer cases. To evaluate this hypothesis we genotyped 432 prostate cancer patients (including 262 patients diagnosed less than or equal to55 years) and 469 UK, population based control individuals with no family history of cancer. We found no significant difference in the frequencies of Thr-541-containing genotypes between cases and controls (OR 1.41, 95% CI 0.79-2.50). The association remained non-significant when the analysis was restricted to cases divided by age of onset into those diagnosed less than or equal to55 years (OR=1.50, 95% CI 0.79-2.85) or to patients diagnosed >55 years (OR=1.27, 95% CI 0.59-2.74). We conclude that any association between the Thr541 variant and prostate cancer is likely to be weak. (C) 2002 Cancer Research UK.