[Association between pancreatic cancer risk and the interaction of U2AF65 gene polymorphisms and smoking]

To determine the association between U2 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein auxiliary factor 35/65 (U2AF35 and U2AF65) and pancreatic cancer (PC).

A two-stage analysis case-control study was conducted. Four candidate tag single nucleotide polymorphisms (tagSNPs) were genotyped by Taqman Openarray assay in a screening population living in Central China (298 PC cases and 525 controls). Thereafter, rs310445 in U2AF65 was genotyped by TaqMan real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in a validation Chinese Han population from Beijing (413 cases and 557 controls).

rs310445 in U2AF65 gene was significantly associated with PC in both screened population and combined population. Subjects with C allele had a higher risk of PC compared to those with the TT genotype, with OR of 1.31 (95%CI:1.07-1.60, P = 0.010) for the combined population. A synergic effect of smoking and C allele of rs310445 was also observed in the combined population, with Synergic Index of 2.08 (95% CI:1.37-2.78) in the combined population.

Our findings suggested the interaction between smoking and U2AF65 might play a role in PC. These findings should be confirmed by further independently large-scale population studies.