Rad51C: A novel suppressor gene modulates the risk of head and neck cancer

We conducted a case-control study to investigate the possible association between the head and neck cancer (HNC) and genetic variability of Rad51C tumor suppressor gene. Eight polymorphic sites spanning over non-coding regions of Rad51C promoter, exon 1 and intron 1 were genotyped in 81 HNC cases and 156 healthy controls using the real-time PCR technique. One investigated site turned out to be not polymorphic, while among the remaining seven sites a significant HNC risk-increasing effect was found for rs16943176 (c.-118G > A), rs12946397 (c.-26C > T) and rs17222691 (c.145 + 947C > T) on both allelic (OR = 1.8; p < 0.05) and genotypic (OR = 2.0; p < 0.05) level. Furthermore, our data seem to provide marginal evidence, that this effect might possibly be confined to women only (OR = 2.8; p = 0.05 for allelic and OR = 3.7; p = 0.05 for genotypic comparisons). These SNPs were found to co-segregate together forming two distinct, HNC risk-modulating haplotypes. The genetic variability of Rad51C might thus be of relevance with respect to HNC risk.