DNA Repair Gene XRCC1 and XPD Polymorphisms and GastricCancer Risk: A Case-Control Study Outcome from Kashmir, India

Coding polymorphisms in several DNA repair genes have been reported to affect the DNA repair capacity and are associated withgenetic susceptibility to many human cancers, including gastric cancer. An understanding of these DNA repair genepolymorphisms might assess not only the risk of humans exposed to environmental carcinogens but also their responses todifferent therapeutical approaches, which target the DNA repair pathway. In the present study, polymorphic variants of twoDNA repair genes, XRCC1 Arg399Gln and XPD Lys751Gln, were chosen to be studied in association with gastric cancersusceptibility in the Kashmiri population. A total of 180 confirmed cases of gastric cancer (GC) and 200 hospital-based controlsfrom Government Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital, Srinagar, were included in the study. The genotyping for XRCC1 andXPD genes was carried out by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism. We found that tobaccosmoking is strongly associated with GC risk (OR = 25.65; 95% CI: 5.49–119.7). However, we did notfind any association ofpolymorphism of XRCC1 Arg399Gln (OR = 1.56; 95% CI: 0.32–7.82) and XPD Lys751Gln (OR = 0.46; CI: 0.10–2.19) with GCrisk in the study population. The combination of genotypes and gender stratification of XRCC1 and XPD genotypic frequencydid not change the results. Consumption of large volumes of salt tea was also not associated with gastric cancer risk.Polymorphic variants of XRCC1 Arg399Gln and XPD Lys751Gln are not associated with the risk of gastric cancer in theKashmiri population. However, replicative studies with larger sample size are needed to substantiate thefindings.