Association of interleukin-23 receptor gene polymorphisms with risk of ovarian cancer

Among gynecological malignancies, ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death. The overall 5-year survival rate remains poor, and the pathogenesis is unknown. The interleukin-23 receptor (IL23R) is known to be critically involved in the carcinogenesis of different malignant tumors. To assess the role of IL23R in ovarian cancer, we conducted a study to investigate the polymorphisms of the IL23R gene in 96 Han Chinese women with histologically proven ovarian cancer. Polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism was used for genotyping. In all three single nucleotide polymorphisms of IL23R studied, the distribution of genotype and allele frequencies of rs10889677 differed significantly between patients and controls. The frequency of allele C of rs10889677 was significantly increased in cases compared with controls (0.281 vs. 0.183, odds ratio OR=1.752, 95% confidence interval CI=1.107-2.772). Furthermore, when stratified by tumor stage, we found that the allele frequencies of rs11465817 differed significantly between FIGO stage I+II and III+IV. The higher frequency of allele A was significantly associated with advanced ovarian cancer (P=0.027, OR=2.087, 95% CI=1.083-4.023). These findings indicate that IL23R polymorphisms may play an important role in the susceptibility and prognosis of ovarian cancer in the Chinese population.