Association of long noncoding RNA MALAT1 polymorphisms with gastric cancer risk in Korean individuals

Metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 (MALAT1) drives tumorigenesis of various human cancers. However, the association between MALAT1 variants and gastric cancer (GC) risk is unknown. We performed a case-control study to evaluate the possible association between rs619586 and rs3200401 SNPs in MALAT and GC risk.

Samples from 458 patients with GC and 381 controls were genotyped using the TaqMan genotyping assay.

In stratified analyses, we observed that rs3200401 CT in the codominant model and CT+TT in the dominant model were associated with increased GC risk in male patients (CT: odds ratio [OR] = 1.81, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.09-3.01, p = 0.022; CT+TT: OR = 1.74, 95% CI = 1.07-2.83, p = 0.026), and the differentiated (CT: OR =1.79, 95% CI = 1.18-2.73, p = 0.007; CT+TT: OR = 1.76, 95% CI = 1.17-2.64, p = 0.007), and intestinal (CT: OR = 1.67, 95% CI = 1.11-2.49, p = 0.013; CT+TT: OR = 1.68, 95% CI = 1.14-2.47, p = 0.009) GC subgroups.

MALAT1 rs3200401 increases GC susceptibility and might affect GC development. Further studies are needed to validate our results in large populations and different ethnic groups.