Tumor necrosis factor-alpha promoter polymorphism is associated with susceptibility to oral squamous cell carcinoma

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is one of the leading cancers in most Asian countries. Alterations of immune function have been detected in OSCC patients. The pro-inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) is a central mediator of the immune response involved in a wide range of immuno-inflammatory and infectious diseases. Polymorphism of the TNF-alpha gene has been intensively studied as a potential determinant of susceptibility to numerous cancers.

We genotyped 192 patients with OSCC and 146 healthy case controls by using polymerase chain reaction-double restriction fragment length polymorphism with amplification-created restriction sites to assess allelic determinants at the TNF-alpha polymorphic sites -308 and -238 in the promoter region. Genotype frequencies were evaluated with Fisher's test.

The -308 TNFG (tumor necrosis factor G) allele genotype was higher in patients with OSCC (91.2% vs. 82.2%; P = 0.02) and TNFG/A was lower (8.3% vs. 11.8%; P = 0.02); the -238 TNFG/A allele genotype was lower in patient with OSCC (2.1% vs. 6.9%; P = 0.02).

This is the first report that the TNF-alpha polymorphism is associated with the risk for OSCC in Taiwan.