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Variants in circadian genes and prostate cancer risk: a population-based study in China

Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases volume 11, pages 342–348 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Circadian genes influence a variety of biological processes that are important in prostate tumorigenesis including metabolism. To determine if variants in circadian genes alter prostate cancer risk, we genotyped five variants in five circadian genes in a population-based case–control study conducted in China (187 cases and 242 controls). These variants included CRY2 rs1401417:G>C, CSNK1E rs1005473:A>C, NPAS2 rs2305160:G>A, PER1 rs2585405:G>C and PER3 54-bp repeat length variant. Men with the cryptochrome 2 (CRY2)-variant C allele had a significant 1.7-fold increased prostate cancer risk (95% confidence interval (CI), 1.1–2.7) relative to those with the GG genotype. This risk increased to 4.1-fold (95% CI, 2.2–8.0) in men who also had greater insulin resistance (IR) as compared to men with the GG genotype and less IR. In contrast, among men with less IR, the NPAS2-variant A allele was associated with decreased prostate cancer risk (odds ratio=0.5, 95% CI, 0.3–1.0) as compared to the GG genotype. Our findings, although in need of confirmation, suggest that variations in circadian genes may alter prostate cancer risk and some biological processes may modify this effect.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the staff of the Shanghai Cancer Institute for specimen collection and processing; collaborating hospitals and urologists for data collection; local pathologists for pathology review; Shelley Niwa of Westat and Gigi Yuan of Information Management Systems, Inc., for data management and preparation; and Janis Koci of the Scientific Applications International Corporation for management of the biological samples.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Cancer Prevention, Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program, Office of Preventive Oncology, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA

    L W Chu

  2. Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA

    Y Zhu, T Zheng, H Yu & Y Zhang

  3. Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA

    K Yu, K N Danforth & A W Hsing

  4. Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Washington, DC, USA

    I Sesterhenn

  5. Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

    A P Chokkalingam

  6. Shanghai Tumor Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

    M-C Shen

  7. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    F Z Stanczyk

  8. Department of Epidemiology, Shanghai Cancer Institute, Shanghai, China

    Y-T Gao

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  1. L W Chu
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Correspondence to L W Chu.

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Chu, L., Zhu, Y., Yu, K. et al. Variants in circadian genes and prostate cancer risk: a population-based study in China. Prostate Cancer Prostatic Dis 11, 342–348 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.pcan.4501024

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.pcan.4501024

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