We recently demonstrated that overexpression of HOTAIR (Hox transcript antisense intergenic RNA) was associated with tumor progression and radio-resistance in human cervical cancer. Considering the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs920778 (C>T) could influence HOTAIR expression and cancer predisposition in other malignancies, we herein investigated the association between rs920778 status and cervical cancer susceptibility in a Chinese population. Using the specific TaqMan PCR assay, we genotyped rs920778 in 215 cervical cancer patients and 430 age-matched healthy controls. As shown in our data, TT genotype of rs920778 was significantly correlated with the upregulation of HOTAIR (p = 0.008). Compared with the healthy control, TT genotype and T allele notably indicated a much higher risk of cervical cancer [TT genotype: odds ratio (OR) = 2.186, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.378-3.466, p = 0.003; T allele: OR = 1.556, 95% CI = 1.221-1.981]. In addition, we also found that the TT genotype of rs920778 was correlated with advanced tumor stage (p = 0.039), highly histological grade (p = 0.013), lympho node metastasis (p < 0.001) and positive infection of high risk HPV (p < 0.001). Among the patients who underwent concurrent chemo-radiotherapy, TT genotype carriers present notably resistance to the combination of EBRT + ICBT + cisplatin (p = 0.023). In conclusion, we firstly reported that TT genotype of HOTAIR rs920778 was significantly associated with the cervical cancer susceptibility. Moreover, the TT genotype of rs920778 might be a potent prognostic marker in cervical cancer patients.
Keywords: Cervical cancer; Hox transcript antisense intergenic RNA; cancer susceptibility; long non-coding RNA; rs920778 polymorphism.
© 2016 APMIS. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.