PIK3CA polymorphisms associated with susceptibility to hepatocellular carcinoma

Our study was carried out to explore the relationship of PIK3CA rs17849071 and rs17849079 polymorphisms with the susceptibility to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in Chinese Han population. 150 HCC patients and 152 healthy individuals were recruited in the case and control groups respectively. The genotypes of PIK3CA rs17849071 and rs17849079 polymorphisms were detected with polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method. The linkage disequilibrium and haplotypes were analyzed with Haploview software. Differences in frequencies of genotypes, alleles, and haplotypes between the case and control groups were checked with χ(2) test. The controls were matched with the cases in age and gender. The relative risk of HCC was represented by odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI). Significant difference in frequencies of GG genotype and G allele in PIK3CA rs17849071 polymorphism existed between the two groups (P=0.040; P=0.028), indicating that rs17849071 was closely related to the increased risk of HCC (OR=2.919, 95% CI=1.007-8.460; OR=1.642, 95% CI=1.051-2.564). Furthermore, TT genotype also significantly increased the susceptibility to HCC (OR=3.438, 95% CI=1.050-11.250) and so was T allele (OR=1.521, 95% CI=1.052-2.199). The haplotype analysisshowed that G-T haplotypes were higher in cases than that of controls (P=0.030), which suggested that G-T might be a susceptible haplotype to HCC. The PIK3CA rs17849071 and rs17849079 polymorphisms may increase the risk of HCC either independently or synergistically.