Significant association between FasL gene -844T/C polymorphism and risk to hepatocellular carcinoma in Egyptian patients

Blood samples were withdrawn from hundred HCC patients and 100 age-, sex- and ethnically matched controls. The FasL -844 T/C (rs763110) gene polymorphism was typed from genomic DNA using polymerase chain reaction restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) assay. Genotype distributions and allelic frequencies between patients and control subjects showed that the TT homozygous patients were two times more likely to develop HCC (p = 0.011). Also, the T allele was found to be a significant risk factor for the disease (OR 1.970, 95% CI 1.250-3.105, p = 0.003). No association was detected between different parameters of the disease and the SNP. For the first time, our results suggest that the -844T/C polymorphism in the FasL gene confers risk to HCC. The alarming increase in the incidence of HCC in Egypt encourages further studies to document our results in a larger sample, and recommends more genetic studies hoping to define a genomic risk prediction specific to this cancer in our population.