Association of MUC6-minisatellite variants with susceptibility to rectal carcinoma

A secreted MUC6 mucin is reported to be expressed highly in the stomach and gall bladder. In previous our study, the five minisatellites were identified and a significant association between MUC6-MS5 alleles and gastric cancer was reported. Because of aberrant MUC6 expression is often found in gastrointestinal diseases, we evaluated a relationship between MUC6-MS5 and susceptibility to colorectal cancers. Case-control study was performed with 1,103 cancer-free controls and 414 rectal cancer cases. A significant association (OR = 2.70) between short rare MUC6-MS5 alleles (7, 9 repeats) and the occurrence of cancer was observed in rectal cancer [95 % confidence interval (CI), 1.12-6.54; p = 0.022]. Furthermore, a comparison by gender showed the differences in the association ratios between rectal cancer and short rare MUC6-MS5 alleles: male, 3.97 (CI: 1.36-11.5; p = 0.006) versus female 0.91 (CI: 0.18-4.75; p = 0.913). We also examined the association according to lymphovascular invasion (LVI). The frequency of LVI positive rectal cancer was increased in short rare allele cases than in the total rectal cases: 16.2 % versus 42.9 %. Therefore, we suggest that the short rare MUC6-MS5 alleles may be related to cancer development in male and these cancer cases may be related the bad prognosis.