XRCC3 haplotypes and risk of gliomas in a Chinese population: a hospital-based case-control study

In mammalian cells, X-ray repair cross-complementing group3 (XRCC3) plays an important role in the DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) repair by homologous recombination. Genetic polymorphisms in the XRCC3 gene may potentially affect the repair of DSBs and thus confer susceptibility to gliomas. In this study, we used a haplotype-based approach to investigate whether 4 tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms of the XRCC3 gene are associated with risk of gliomas in 771 glioma patients and 752 cancer-free controls. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated by the unconditional logistic regression, and haplotype associations were estimated using Haplo.Stat. After adjustment for age and sex, the variant G allele of rs861530 and T allele of rs3212092 were significantly associated with an increased risk of gliomas (AG/GG versus AA: adjusted OR = 1.44, 95% CI = 1.15-1.80, p = 0.001 and CT/TT versus CC: adjusted OR = 1.66, 95% CI = 1.12-2.46, p = 0.013, respectively). Consistent with these results, XRCC3 haplotype "GGCC" containing rs861530 G allele and haplotype "AGTC" containing rs3212092 T allele were also significantly associated with an elevated risk of gliomas compared with the common haplotype "AGCC" (adjusted OR = 1.35, 95% CI = 1.14-1.58, p = 0.000 and adjusted OR = 1.67, 95% CI = 1.11-2.52, p = 0.015, respectively). Our results suggest that common genetic variants in the XRCC3 gene may modulate glioma risk.