Polymorphisms in folate-metabolizing genes and risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

We investigated the role of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the folate-metabolizing genes MTHFR, MTR, MTRR, MTHFD, CBS and SHMT in regulating genetic susceptibility to Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). We determined the allele and genotype frequencies in the case group (146 patients with NHL) and the control group (540 blood donors). A significant association with NHL was observed only for MTHFD1 G1958A (allele G OR = 1.382, P = 0.05; genotype GA OR = 2.316, P = 0.01; genotype GG OR = 2.153, P = 0.03). After additional stratification of case and control groups according to sex and tumor type association of MTHFD1 G1958A with NHL was observed only in high-grade NHL subgroup (allele G OR = 1.664, P = 0.01) and in women subgroup (allele G OR = 2.043, P = 0.009). Meta-analysis for SNPs in the MTHFR, MTR, MTRR and SHMT revealed a reducing effect of the MTR 2756G allele on the risk of NHL (OR = 0.902; 95% CI 0.821–0.991, P = 0.03).