Clinicopathological significance of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 gene polymorphism in breast cancer patients from North West of Iran

Introduction: A common polymorphism 4G/5G in the promoter region of the Plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) gene has been reported to influence the expression levels of PAI-1. According to the evidence, progression of breast cancer can be associated with elevated levels of PAI-1, it seems that evaluation of a possible correlation between the polymorphism and clinical status of breast cancer patients is reasonable. Methods: This descriptive-analytical study included 160 unrelated patients from North West of Iran. According to established clinical criteria, these paitients were diagnosed with breast cancer. Based on previous study, PAI-1 4G/5G had been determined. In order to investigate the association of this polymorphism with clinicopathological features Fisher's exact tests and SPSS software was used with a significance level of 0.05. Results: All declared features of breast cancer regarding PAI-1 4G/5G polymorphism were investigated. Results indicated that PAI-1 4G/5G polymorphism positive correlation with several traditional prognostic factors, including tumor size, lymph node metastases and tumor stage. Conclusion: Data showed that the patients with 5G/5G genotype are more susceptible to the development of breast cancer, while the paitients with 4G/4G and 4G/5G genotypes show lower sensitivity to the breast cancer. Therefore, the 4G allele likely has a protective role against the development of breast cancer in this cohort.