Purpose: Breast cancer develops through complex interactions of genetic and environmental influences. XRCC4 is a critical DNA repair gene that maintains genomic stability and is implicated in carcinogenesis, while VEGF is a key regulator of angiogenesis that plays an essential role in tumor progression and recurrence. The present study sought to evaluate the contribution of XRCC4 (rs28360071) and VEGF (rs35569394) polymorphisms to breast cancer susceptibility in a Jordanian Arab cohort. Patients and Methods: This case-control study included 300 breast cancer patients and 300 healthy individuals. Peripheral blood samples were collected for genomic DNA extraction. XRCC4 (rs28360071) and VEGF (rs35569394) polymorphisms were genotyped using direct PCR, and their associations with breast cancer risk were analyzed using appropriate statistical methods. Results: The XRCC4 (rs28360071) polymorphism exhibited significant differences in allelic and genotypic distributions between breast cancer cases and control individuals in both unadjusted (p = 0.01) and adjusted analyses (p = 0.005), with the DD genotype associated with reduced breast cancer risk. Conclusion: The findings suggest that XRCC4 (rs28360071) is associated with breast cancer susceptibility among Jordanian Arab women, whereas VEGF (rs35569394) does not appear to influence risk. These results indicate a potential role for XRCC4 variation in breast cancer susceptibility in this population; however, this finding should be cautiously interpreted, as further research is required to confirm the association. Keywords: breast cancer, polymorphism, VEGF, XRCC4
AL-Eitan et al. (Mon,) studied this question.