LMO1 gene polymorphisms contribute to decreased neuroblastoma susceptibility in a Southern Chinese population

// Jing He 1, 2, * , Wei Zhong 1, * , Jixiao Zeng 1, * , Jinhong Zhu 3 , Ruizhong Zhang 1 , Fenghua Wang 1 , Tianyou Yang 1 , Yan Zou 1 , Huimin Xia 1 1 Department of Pediatric Surgery, Guangzhou Institute of Pediatrics, Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Center, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou 510623, Guangdong, China 2 Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Department of Experimental Research, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou 510060, Guangdong, China 3 Molecular Epidemiology Laboratory and Department of Laboratory Medicine, Harbin Medical University Cancer Hospital, Harbin 150040, Heilongjiang, China * These authors contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Huimin Xia, e-mail: xia-huimin@foxmail.com Keywords: neuroblastoma, LMO1, polymorphism, genetic susceptibility Received: November 30, 2015 Accepted: February 21, 2016 Published: March 18, 2016 ABSTRACT Neuroblastoma is one of the most commonly diagnosed extracranial solid tumors in infancy; however, the etiology of neuroblastoma remains largely unknown. Previous genome-wide association study (GWAS) indicated that several common genetic variations (rs110419 A > G, rs4758051 G > A, rs10840002 A > G and rs204938 A > G) in the LIM domain only 1 (LMO1) gene were associated with neuroblastoma susceptibility. The aim of this study was to evaluate the correlation between the four GWAS-identified LMO1 gene polymorphisms and neuroblastoma risk in a Southern Chinese population. We genotyped the four polymorphisms in 256 neuroblastoma cases and 531 controls. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to evaluate the strength of the associations. False-positive report probability was calculated for all significant findings. We found that the rs110419 A > G polymorphism was associated with a significantly decreased neuroblastoma risk (AG vs. AA: adjusted OR = 0.65, 95% CI = 0.47–0.91; GG vs. AA: adjusted OR = 0.58, 95% CI = 0.36–0.91; AG/GG vs. AA: adjusted OR = 0.63, 95% CI = 0.46–0.86), and the protective effect was more predominant in children of age > 18 months, males, subgroups with tumor in adrenal gland and mediastinum, and patients in clinical stages III/IV. These results suggested that LMO1 gene rs110419 A > G polymorphism may contribute to protection against neuroblastoma. Our findings call for further validation studies with larger sample size.