Solitary and multiple uterine leiomyomas among Caucasian women: two different disorders?

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether polymorphism in CYP17A1 gene is associated with uterine leiomyomas (ULM) and to evaluate differences in epidemiologic and genetic factors among solitary and multiple leiomyomas. DESIGN: Prospective case control study. SETTING: Tertiary gynecology department. PATIENT(S): One hundred eighty-one women with clinically and surgically diagnosed ULM, 41 healthy control subjects, and 92 population control subjects. INTERVENTION(S): Completing the questionnaires, peripheral venous puncture. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Polymerase chain reaction and restriction-fragment-length polymorphism analyses were performed to genotype women regarding the CYP17A1 -34 A/G (rs743572) gene polymorphisms. Epidemiologic data was collected by questionnaire and compared between women with ULM and healthy control subjects. RESULT(S): Women with multiple ULM had higher prevalence of positive family history, lower age at menarche, lower parity, higher percentage of smoking, younger age at first sexual intercourse, lower prevalence of CYP17A1 AA genotype and lower CYP17A1 A allele frequency than healthy control subjects. These trends were not apparent among women with solitary ULM. CONCLUSION(S): Carriage of CYP17A1 AA is protective for developing ULM in our population. Women with solitary ULM mostly resembled healthy control subjects, whereas women with multiple ULM differed in CYP17A1 AA genotype and external stimuli.