Association of osteopontin polymorphisms with nasopharyngeal carcinoma risk

No previous study has reported the association of osteopontin polymorphisms with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) risk. We aimed to investigate the association in a Chinese population. Four variants of osteopontin, rs11730582, rs1126772, rs9138, and rs4754 polymorphisms, were assessed in a case-control study which consists of 108 NPC patients and 210 health controls, by using polymerase chain reaction – restriction fragment length polymorphism method. Serum osteopontin levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The serum osteopontin levels were significantly higher in NPC patients than those in controls (P < 0.01). Carriers of CC and CT genotype of rs11730582 presented lower serum osteopontin levels than those of TT genotype carriers (P < 0.05). Genotypes CT and CT + CC of rs11730582 were associated with the risk of NPC (CT:OR = 0.57, 95%CI = 0.34–0.94; CC + CT:OR = 0.54, 95%CI = 0.34–0.87). Haplotype analysis revealed that haplotype T-A-A-C of rs11730582, rs1126772, rs9138, and rs4754 was associated with NPC risk (OR = 0.49, 95%CI = 0.27–0.86). Stratification analysis showed that genotypes CT and CT + CC of rs11730582 were associated with tumor stage and lymph node metastasis (P < 0.05). No associations were found between rs1126772, rs9138, and rs4754 polymorphisms and NPC risk (P > 0.05). The variant rs11730582 of osteopontin is associated with NPC risk. It potentially serves as a genetic marker of NPC predisposition.