Association of interleukin-8 polymorphism (+781 C/T) with the risk of ovarian cancer

IL-8 is a chemokine which plays an essential role in tumorigenesis, specifically in tumor growth, angiogenesis and invasion. Recent studies have determined that IL-8 +781C/T polymorphism correlates with some human cancers. The purpose of current study was to clarify the association of interleukin-8 polymorphism (+781 C/T) with the risk of ovarian cancer. In this case-control study, 150 samples including 50 specimens of ovarian tissue from female patients and 100 blood samples of cancer-free females were recruited. All studied individuals were from Kermanshah province, Iran, with ethnic background of Kurdish. After DNA extraction, the polymorphism of interleukin-8 (+781 C/T) was assessed by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) test. Our results showed that the frequencies of CC, CT and TT genotypes in healthy individuals were 8, 70 and 22% respectively. In contrast, in ovarian cancer patients, frequencies were found as CC (13%), CT (57%) and TT (30%) genotypes. Based on our obtained results, there was a significant positive correlation (P < 0.05) between IL8 +781 C/T genotypes and the risk of ovarian cancer disease. IL8 +781 C/T polymorphism could possibly be a biomarker for ovarian cancer susceptibility. Our results confirm that genetic variations such as SNPs in interleukin-8 gene have significant association with the ovarian cancer susceptibility.