A functional copy number variation in the WWOX gene is associated with lung cancer risk in Chinese.

WW domain-containing oxidoreductase (WWOX) is a tumor suppressor that has been reported to lose function due to genetic alterations in several cancers. WWOX maps to the common chromosomal fragile site FRA16D and several copy number variations (CNVs) were found within this gene. In this study, we investigated the association between the CNVs of WWOX and lung cancer risk in four independent case-control studies, which are on 2942 lung cancer cases and 3074 cancer-free controls of southern, eastern and northern Chinese. A common CNV-67048 was genotyped by the Taqman real-time PCR, and its biological effect was accessed with protein expression and sequencing assays. We found that in comparison with the common 2-copy genotype, the carriers of loss variant genotypes (1-copy or 0-copy) had a significantly increased risk of lung cancer (adjusted OR = 1.39, 95% CI = 1.24-1.55, P = 9.01×10(-9)) in a dose-response manner (Ptrend = 1.12 × 10(-10)), and the WWOX protein expressions in lung cancer tissues were significantly lower (P = 0.036), accompanying a higher rate of exons absence (P = 0.021) in subjects with loss genotypes of CNV-67048. Our data suggest that the loss genotypes of CNV-67048 in WWOX predispose their carriers to lung cancer; this might be related with altered WWOX gene expression and exons absence in them.

A functional copy-number variation in MAPKAPK2 predicts risk and prognosis of lung cancer.

Mitogen-activated protein kinase-activated protein kinase 2 (MAPKAPK2) may promote cancer development and progression by inducing tumorigenesis and drug resistance. To assess whether the copy-number variation g.CNV-30450 located in the MAPKAPK2 promoter has any effect on lung cancer risk or prognosis, we investigated the association between g.CNV-30450 and cancer risk in three independent case-control studies of 2,332 individuals with lung cancer and 2,457 controls and the effects of g.CNV-30450 on cancer prognosis in 1,137 individuals with lung cancer with survival data in southern and eastern Chinese populations. We found that those subjects who had four copies of g.CNV-30450 had an increased cancer risk (odds ratio = 1.94, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.61-2.35) and a worse prognosis for individuals with lung cancer (with a median survival time of only 9 months) (hazard ratio = 1.47, 95% CI = 1.22-1.78) compared with those with two or three copies (with a median survival time of 14 months). Meanwhile, four copies of g.CNV-30450 significantly increased MAPKAPK2 expression, both in vitro and in vivo, compared with two or three copies. Our study establishes a robust association between the functional g.CNV-30450 in MAPKAPK2 and risk as well as prognosis of lung cancer, and it presents this functional copy-number variation as a potential biomarker for susceptibility to and prognosis for lung cancer.

The effect of functional MAPKAPK2 copy number variation CNV-30450 on elevating nasopharyngeal carcinoma risk is modulated by EBV infection.

UNLABELLED: Mitogen-activated protein kinase-activated protein kinase 2 (MAPKAPK2) is recognized as oncogenic and simulative role on tumorigenesis by virtue of abnormal expression in cancer including nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). We hypothesized that the copy number variation (CNV)-30450, which duplicates the MAPKAPK2 promoter, may affect MAPKAPK2 expression and be associated with NPC risk. In two independent case-control panels of southern and eastern Chinese with a total of 1590 NPC patients and 1979 cancer-free controls, we investigated the association between CNV-30450 and NPC risk by genotyping the CNV-30450 with the TaqMan assay, and tested its biological effect. Consistent findings were observed in the two populations, that the increased copy number of CNV-30450 was associated with increased risk of NPC (3/4-copy versus 2-copy: odds ratio = 1.28, 95% confidence interval = 1.10-1.49), in which lies a biological mechanism that the adverse genotypes enhanced the promoter activity of MAPKAPK2 and elevated MAPKAPK2 expression. Moreover, the CNV-30450 adverse genotypes significantly interacted with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection on increasing NPC risk (P = 0.035), and the genotype-phenotype correlation was only significant in EBV-positive cases (P = 0.037) but not in EBV-negative ones (P = 0.366). These data suggest that the functional CNV-30450 in the MAPKAPK2 promoter elevates the NPC risk with a modulation by EBV infection, which may be an indicator of susceptibility to NPC. SUMMARY: This case-control study suggests that the functional CNV-30450 in the MAPKAPK2 promoter elevates the NPC risk with a modulation by EBV infection, which may be an indicator of susceptibility to NPC.

Temporal trends in disease burden and attributable risk factors for tracheal, bronchus, and lung cancer in Nepal, 1990-2019.

BACKGROUND: Tracheal, bronchus, and lung (TBL) cancer is one of the most common cancers in Nepal. The aim of this study was to analyze the changing disease burden and risk factors for TBL cancer in Nepal from 1990 to 2019. METHODS: TBL cancer burden data were obtained from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. A decomposition analysis was used to explore the impact of changes in population size, population age structure, age-specific prevalence, and disease severity on long-term trends of the TBL cancer burden in Nepal. RESULTS: In 2019, TBL cancer resulted in the loss of 45.2 thousand (95% uncertainty interval [UI]: 32.3-59.2 thousand) disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) in Nepal, with the age-standardized incidence and prevalence rates increasing by 12.7% (95% UI: -21.0 to 63.9%) and 12.8% (95% UI: -21.1 to 62.0%), respectively, compared with 1990. The proportion of DALYs due to TBL cancer increased significantly among people aged 70 years and older from 1990 to 2019. However, the proportion of DALYs due to TBL cancer still dominated among males and females aged 50-69 years. Population growth, population aging, and increased age-specific prevalence led to an increased disease burden of TBL cancer, while disease severity led to a decreased burden. In 2019, smoking remained the major risk factor for TBL cancer in Nepal, while ambient particulate matter pollution exhibited the most significant rise. CONCLUSIONS: The disease burden of TBL cancer in Nepal has continued to increase over the past three decades, and given the continuing population growth and aging process, TBL cancer is likely to have a considerable impact on health in Nepal in the future. There is a need to further establish effective TBL cancer prevention and control policies.

A functional polymorphism in the promoter of ERK5 gene interacts with tobacco smoking to increase the risk of lung cancer in Chinese populations.

Mitogen/extracellular signal-regulated kinase-5 (MEK5)/extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase-5 (ERK5) pathway plays a pro-oncogenic role in tumourigenesis by anticell apoptosis, promoting cell proliferation and differentiation in response to extracellular stimuli. As overexpressed MEK5/ERK5 is involved in the development of lung cancer, we hypothesised that the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in MEK5 and ERK5 genes may influence gene expression and thus be associated with lung cancer risk. Five putative functional polymorphisms (rs3743353T>C, rs7172582C>T and rs2278076A>G of MEK5 and rs3866958G>T and rs2233083C>T of ERK5) were genotyped in two independent case-control studies with a total of 1559 lung cancer patients and 1679 controls in southern and eastern Chinese population. We found the rs3866958G>T of ERK5 was significantly associated with lung cancer risk, while other SNPs were not. Compared with the rs3866958TG/TT genotypes, the GG genotype conferred an increased risk of lung cancer (odds ratio = 1.30, 95% confidence interval = 1.12-1.51, P = 5.0×10(-4)), and this effect was more pronounced in smokers, accompanying with a significant interaction with smoking (P interaction = 0.013). The GG genotype also had significant higher mRNA levels of ERK5 in lung cancer tissues than TG/TT genotypes (P = 1.0×10(-4)); the luciferase reporter with the G allele showed significant higher transcription activities than the T allele, especially after the treatment with tobacco extract in vitro. Our data indicated that the functional polymorphism rs3866958G>T in ERK5 was associated with an increased lung cancer risk in smokers by virtue of the positive interaction with smoking on promoting the ERK5 expression, which might be a valuable indicator for predicting lung cancer risk in smokers.

The protective role of polymorphism MKK4-1304 T>G in nasopharyngeal carcinoma is modulated by Epstein-Barr virus' infection status.

MKK4 is a candidate tumor suppressor, which acts as a critical mediator of Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV)-induced c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) activation. Functional polymorphism MKK4 -1304T>G has been showed to be protective in colorectal cancer or lung cancer. We hypothesized that genetic variants in the MKK4 promoter were associated with the risk of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Two common polymorphisms in MKK4, -1304T>G and -1044A>T were genotyped in two independent case-control panels of Eastern and Southern Chinese populations, totally containing 1237 NPC and 1328 controls. We found that compared to the most common -1304TT genotype, carriers of variant genotypes (-1304TG+GG) were associated with a significantly reduced risk for NPC in total subjects (adjusted OR = 0.78; 95%CI = 0.67-0.94). Further stratification analysis showed that the protective effect was more pronounced in EBV negative status (adjusted OR = 0.51; 95%CI = 0.41-0.68) but restrained in those with EBV infection (adjusted OR = 1.05; 95%CI = 0.88-1.26), and that the -1304GG variant genotypes interacted with EBV negative status on reducing cancer risk (p = 0.011). However, no significant association was observed between the -1044A>T polymorphism and risk of NPC. Our data suggest that the protective role of genetic variant MKK4 -1304T>G is restrained in NPC with EBV infection. These findings implicate the role of EBV and MKK4 -1304 T>G interaction as a causative factor for the NPC.

Functional genetic variants of c-Jun and their interaction with smoking and drinking increase the susceptibility to lung cancer in southern and eastern Chinese.

Human proto-oncogene c-Jun and c-Fos assemble the activator protein-1 complex which is a crucial transcription factor responding to environmental factors and promotes tumorgenesis. We hypothesized that genetic variants in these two genes may alter the carriers' susceptibility to lung cancer. In two independent case-control studies, we genotyped three putative functional polymorphisms (-1318T>G and -673T>C of c-Jun; -60C>T of c-Fos) in southern Chinese and then validated the association in eastern Chinese. We found that compared to -1318TT genotype, the -1318GT/GG variant genotypes had an increased lung cancer risk (OR=1.46, 95% CI=1.26-1.69), and the -673CC genotype had an increased lung cancer risk compared to -673TT/CT genotypes (OR=1.35, 95% CI=1.17-1.56) in the total 1,559 cases versus 1,679 controls. After combining these two loci, the number of the risk genotypes was associated with increased cancer risk in a dose-response manner (ptrend=2.21×10(-11)); moreover, the risk genotypes interacted with smoking or drinking status on increasing cancer risk (p values of interaction were 0.009 and 0.007, respectively). Further, we found that those with -1318GT/GG genotypes, -673CC genotypes or both genotypes in c-Jun had higher mRNA and protein expression levels in vivo, and those variants had higher transcription activities in reporter genes in vitro, especially under the stimuli with tobacco extract or alcohol mixture as luciferase assay shown. However, for -60C>T of c-Fos, no significant association was observed for lung cancer risk. Our data suggested that the genetic variants in c-Jun (-1318T>G and -673T>C) increase the carriers' susceptibility to lung cancer via interaction with smoking or drinking on increasing the c-Jun's expression.