Association between polymorphisms in the thymidylate synthase gene and risk of breast cancer in a Mexican population

Breast cancer (BC) is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women in Mexico. Two single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the thymidylate synthase (TS) gene, the 28-base pair (bp) tandem repeat in the TS 5'-untranslated enhanced region (TSER) and the 6-bp insertion/deletion in the TS 3'-untranslated region (TS 3'-UTR), increase the rate of misincorporation of uridylate into DNA and may lead to chromosomal damage. We examined the association between these polymorphisms and BC risk in Mexican women according to menopause status. Mexican patients with initial BC diagnosis (N = 230) and 145 individuals from a reference general population group (RGP) were included. For statistical analysis, the BC group was divided into pre- and post-menopause groups (PRE and POST groups, respectively). We analyzed both TS polymorphisms (TSER and TS 3'-UTR) using polymerase chain reaction. Finetti analysis was used to evaluate inter-and intra-group differences. The results showed a high frequency for the 3R and ins6 alleles in the BC, RGP, PRE, and POST groups. No significant differences were observed for the TS and TSER genotype and allele frequency distributions between groups. We found that the TSER and TS 3'-UTR SNPs are not associated with BC risk in Mexican patients.