Abstract
Background: Mismatch repair (MMR) gene activity may be associated with prostate cancer risk and outcomes. This study evaluated whether single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in key MMR genes are related to prostate cancer outcomes.
Methods: Data from two population-based case-control studies of prostate cancer among Caucasian and African-American men residing in King County, Washington were combined for this analysis. Cases (n = 1,458) were diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1993 to 1996 or 2002 to 2005 and were identified through the Seattle-Puget Sound Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results cancer registry. Controls (n = 1,351) were age-matched to cases and were identified through random digit dialing. Logistic regression was used to assess the relationship between haplotype-tagging SNPs and prostate cancer risk and disease aggressiveness. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to assess the relationship between SNPs and prostate cancer recurrence and prostate cancer–specific death.
Results: Nineteen SNPs were evaluated in the key MMR genes: five in MLH1, 10 in MSH2, and 4 in PMS2. Among Caucasian men, one SNP in MLH1 (rs9852810) was associated with overall prostate cancer risk [odds ratio, 1.21; 95% confidence interval (95% CI), 1.02, 1.44; P = 0.03], more aggressive prostate cancer (odds ratio, 1.49; 95% CI, 1.15, 1.91; P < 0.01), and prostate cancer recurrence (hazard ratio, 1.83; 95% CI, 1.18, 2.86; P < 0.01), but not prostate cancer–specific mortality. A nonsynonymous coding SNP in MLH1, rs1799977 (I219V), was also found to be associated with more aggressive disease. These results did not remain significant after adjusting for multiple comparisons.
Conclusion: This population-based case-control study provides evidence for a possible association with a gene variant in MLH1 in relation to the risk of overall prostate cancer, more aggressive disease, and prostate cancer recurrence, which warrants replication. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev;19(1); OF1–7
- prostate cancer
- mismatch repair
- association study
- genetic variant
- odds ratio
- recurrence
- biomarker
Introduction
This year alone, an estimated 30,000 deaths will occur among American men due to prostate cancer (1). Established risk factors for prostate cancer (age, race/ethnicity, and a family history of prostate cancer) and features of more aggressive disease [e.g., higher Gleason score, advanced tumor stage, and high prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels] are not adequate to predict which cases will become life threatening; therefore, active investigation is under way to identify biomarkers that will enhance the ability to identify patients at higher risk for adverse prostate cancer outcomes (2). In this analysis, we evaluated the association of variants in key mismatch repair (MMR) genes, MSH2 (on 2p22-21), MLH1 (on 3p21), and PMS2 (on 7p22), in relation to overall prostate cancer risk, risk of more aggressive disease, prostate cancer recurrence, and prostate cancer–specific mortality.
Mutations in MMR genes (MLH1, MSH2, MSH3, MSH6, PMS1, and PMS2) can lead to instability of microsatellites and failure to repair DNA damage during DNA replication. This damaged DNA can accumulate and eventually lead to the development of neoplasms, such as hereditary nonpolyposis colon cancer, which is characterized by mutations in five microsatellites (3). Several studies have reported more microsatelite instability in prostate cancer tumor tissue compared with normal prostatic tissue (4-9), but some prostate cancer tissue studies have found a low frequency of microsatelite instability (10-14). In addition, reduction or loss of MMR protein expression has been found in human prostate cancer cell lines, such as LNCaP, PC-3, and DU145 (15-20). And some studies, but not all, have correlated hMSH2 immunohistochemical staining intensity with a higher Gleason score and lower disease-free survival (21-23). Recently, Norris et al. (24) found elevated levels of PMS2 in the prostate tumor tissue of patients who recurred compared with nonrecurrent patients.
The nonsynonymous coding single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs1799977 in MLH1 (also called Ile-219Val or I219V) has been evaluated in two studies of prostate cancer risk, with mixed results. Using 275 prostate cancer sibships and 556 unrelated controls, Burmester et al. (25) found that the rare allele of the SNP rs1799977 was significantly associated with prostate cancer. Fredriksson et al. (26), however, found no difference in allele frequency for rs1799977 between 121 patients with hereditary prostate cancer (allele frequency, 54.5%), unselected patients with prostate cancer (54.0%), 202 patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (54.0%), and 200 controls (55.0%).
In light of these provocative but inconclusive findings, this study evaluated the association between variants in the key MMR genes and the risk of prostate cancer and prostate cancer outcomes.
Materials and Methods
Study Population
Data were combined for this analysis from two population-based case-control studies of risk factors for prostate cancer among Caucasian and African-American men residing in King County, Washington, described previously (27, 28). Both studies ascertained cases from the Seattle-Puget Sound Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results cancer registry. The first study included 753 cases diagnosed between January 1, 1993 and December 31, 1996 who were 40 to 64 y of age at diagnosis. The second study included 1,001 cases diagnosed between January 1, 2002 and December 31, 2005 who were 35 to 74 years of age at diagnosis. Controls (n = 703 for the first study, n = 942 for the second study) were men without a self-reported history of prostate cancer, who were recruited through random digit dialing during the same ascertainment period, and from the same underlying general population as the cases; they were frequency-matched to cases by 5-years age groups. Among eligible subjects ascertained for the first study, 82% of cases and 75% of controls participated in the study interview, and of these participants, 84% of cases and 80% of controls provided a blood sample. Among eligible subjects ascertained for the second study, 75% of cases and 63% of controls participated in the study interview, and of these participants, 83% of cases and 84% of controls provided a blood sample. After combining these two studies, there were 1,457 prostate cancer cases and 1,351 controls with DNA available for the analysis.
Background information was collected from participants at the time of interview and included demographic and life-style factors, medical history, prostate cancer screening history, and family history of prostate cancer. This information was assessed before the date of diagnosis for cases and before a preassigned reference date for controls. Clinical information such as Gleason score, tumor stage, serum PSA level at diagnosis, and primary treatment was obtained from the cancer registry. Patient files have been linked to the registry on a regular basis to obtain the vital status and the primary cause of death of cases; death certificates are requested from the state to confirm the underlying cause of death. In 2004, a follow-up survey was sent to 631 of the cases from the first study, 82% of whom responded, to assess secondary treatment(s) and evidence for prostate cancer recurrence or progression.
The Institutional Review Board of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center approved study procedures and materials, and written informed consent was obtained from all study participants. Genotyping was approved by the National Human Genome Research Institute's Institutional Review Board.
TagSNP Selection and Genotyping
DNA samples were genotyped for 20 SNPs in the MLH1, MSH2, and PMS2 genes. The SNPs were selected using the Genome Variation Server4 to cover the genes as haplotype-tagging SNPs. The Applied Biosystems (ABI) SNPlex Genotyping System was used for genotyping, and the proprietary GeneMapper software was used for allele assignment.5 Discrimination of the specific SNP allele was carried out with the ABI 3730xl DNA Analyzer and is based on the presence of a unique sequence assigned to the original allele-specific oligonucleotide. Quality control included genotyping of 144 blind duplicate samples distributed across all genotyping batches. There was ≥99% agreement between blinded samples for all SNP genotypes. Each batch of DNA aliquots genotyped incorporated similar numbers of case and control samples, and laboratory personnel were blinded to the case-control status of samples. Genotype frequencies in MLH1, MSH2, and PMS2 were evaluated among Caucasian and African-American controls separately; all SNPs were consistent with the expected proportions under the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, except for rs12112229 among Caucasians, and so this SNP was removed from the analysis.
Statistical Methods
Logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) to estimate the relative risk of prostate cancer among cases relative to controls for each SNP genotype. Polytomous logistic regression was used to calculate ORs and 95% CIs to estimate the relative risk of more aggressive and less aggressive prostate cancer relative to controls for each SNP genotype. More aggressive prostate cancer was defined by a Gleason score of 7 (4+3) or 8 to 10, regional or distant tumor stage, or a diagnostic PSA value of ≥20 ng/mL. Codominant and dominant genetic models were considered for each SNP. All models were adjusted for age at reference date, and were tested for possible confounding by prostate cancer screening history and/or family history of prostate cancer. In addition, permuted P values were calculated to adjust for multiple comparisons, as described previously (29).
Cox proportional hazards regression was used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs to assess the relationship between the SNPs found to be significantly associated with aggressive prostate cancer and recurrence or death from prostate cancer. The analyses of recurrence were restricted to cases diagnosed with local or regional stage disease and who either subsequently died of prostate cancer (before the follow-up survey) or completed a follow-up survey, which provided recurrence information and consent to obtain medical records. Recurrence was defined as at least one of the following from self-report and/or medical records: a positive bone scan, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, or biopsy showing prostate cancer after primary treatment; use of secondary therapy [androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), external beam radiation therapy, cryotherapy, or chemotherapy]; an elevated PSA (≥0.2 ng/mL) after radical prostatectomy; an elevated PSA after radiation therapy (nadir PSA +2 ng/mL); an increasing PSA while on primary ADT; treatment for evidence of progressive disease that was initiated >12 mo after diagnosis in patients on active surveillance; or a self-reported physician's diagnosis of disease recurrence/progression. Time from diagnosis until recurrence was calculated as the difference between the date of diagnosis and the earliest date of evidence of recurrence: date of death from prostate cancer, date of recurrence or progression abstracted from medical records, date of recurrence from the follow-up survey, or, for those censored, the end of the year during which the follow-up survey was collected (December 31, 2005). For men who died of prostate cancer before December 31, 2005, date of recurrence was imputed to be similar to dates of recurrence for comparable subjects. The analyses of prostate cancer death included all cases. The censoring date for members last known to be alive was the date of the last vital status update from the cancer registry (December 1, 2008). The proportional hazards models were adjusted for age and tested for possible confounding by prostate cancer screening history or a family history of prostate cancer, and recalculated including only cases who received radical prostatectomy as primary therapy.
Most analyses were done in SAS version 9.1.3 (SAS Institute). Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium was calculated in STATA/SE 10.0 for Windows (StataCorp).
Results
Among the 1,458 cases and 1,351 controls, a higher proportion of cases than controls were African-American (10.2% versus 6.3%, respectively; Table 1), had a first-degree relative with prostate cancer (21.5% versus 11.3%), and reported having a PSA or Digital Rectal Exam (DRE) screening test in the 5 years before diagnosis or reference date (89.3% and 86.5%).
Characteristics of prostate cancer cases and controls
Nineteen tagSNPs were evaluated: 5 in MLH1, 10 in MSH2, and 4 in PMS2. Among Caucasian men, one SNP in MLH1 (rs9852810) was associated with overall prostate cancer risk (OR, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.02, 1.44; P = 0.03; Table 2 and Supplementary Data). Rs9852810 and another SNP in MLH1, rs1799977, were associated with more aggressive prostate cancer among Caucasian men when aggressive cases were compared with controls (rs9852810: OR, 1.49; 95% CI, 1.15, 1.91; P < 0.01; rs1799977: OR 1.35; 95% CI, 1.08, 1.69; P = 0.03; Table 2) and when aggressive cases were compared with less aggressive cases (rs9852810: OR, 1.34; 95% CI, 1.03, 1.75; P = 0.03; rs1799977: OR, 1.33; 95% CI, 1.05, 1.69; P = 0.02; data not shown). After adjustment for multiple comparisons using permutation P values, rs9852810 did not remain significantly associated with overall prostate cancer risk (Pperm = 0.22); in addition, the associations between rs9852810 and rs1799977 with more aggressive disease did not attain statistical significance (when compared with controls, Pperm = 0.09 for both SNPs). The association with overall prostate cancer risk and with disease aggressiveness remained similar after adjustment for a first-degree relative with prostate cancer or having a prostate cancer screening test in the 5 years before reference date. Similar analyses among African-American men revealed no associations between any SNP genotypes and overall prostate cancer risk (Supplementary Data) or disease aggressiveness (data not shown).
Risk of prostate cancer and disease aggressiveness associated with two SNPs in the MLH1 gene
Among the 469 Caucasian cases diagnosed with local or regional disease who completed a follow-up survey or died of prostate cancer before December 31, 2005, 143 recurred. Rs9852810 was associated with prostate cancer recurrence in Caucasians [110 of 320 (34.4%) cases with the putative risk genotype and 24 of 115 (20.9%) cases with the homozygous wild-type genotype recurred; HRGA+AA, 1.83; 95% CI, 1.18, 2.86; P < 0.01; Table 3]. Rs1799977 was not associated with prostate cancer recurrence and neither SNP was associated with prostate cancer–specific mortality (Table 3).
Risk of prostate cancer recurrence and death associated with two SNPs in the MLH1 gene
Discussion
In this population-based case-control study of tagSNPs in key MMR genes (MLH1, MSH2, and PMS2), we found the SNP rs9852810 in MLH1 to be associated with a modest increase in overall prostate cancer risk, risk of more aggressive prostate cancer, and prostate cancer recurrence. This intronic SNP is in perfect LD with several other SNPs near the start codon of MLH1 (such as rs11129748). To our knowledge, the association with this variant and prostate cancer has not been evaluated previously. We also found an association between the nonsynonymous coding SNP rs1799977 in MLH1 and more aggressive prostate cancer. As noted in the introduction, the association between this SNP and prostate cancer has been evaluated previously with mixed results (25, 26). This SNP has also recently been reported to be associated with breast cancer risk (OR, 1.87; 95% CI, 1.11, 3.16; ref. 30), and may be associated with susceptibility to childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (31).
One limitation to this study is possible type I error due to multiple testing. For each of the 19 SNPs, we calculated six significance tests among Caucasians, so one would expect that about six results might be due solely to chance. The main result (for rs9852810) did not remain significant based on a permutated P value; however, it was significant in the prostate cancer risk analysis, the analysis of aggressive disease, and the analysis of recurrence, which lends strength to the result. If confirmed, this result lends further support for a potential shared susceptibility for prostate cancer and colon cancer, which is consistent with prior findings for a SNP in the 8q24 region that confers risk for both cancer types (32, 33).
There are several strengths to this study. The data used for this analysis were from two population-based case-control studies, which means men with all grades and stages of disease, and who received a range of initial treatments, were included. In addition, we have over 10 years of patient follow-up to evaluate recurrence and progression, and clinical and patient information was available for evaluation of potential confounders and effect modifiers.
Conclusion
Evidence from previous studies shows that loss of MMR function may be characteristic of prostate carcinogenesis. This population-based study provides evidence for a possible association with a gene variant in MLH1 in relation to risk of overall prostate cancer, more aggressive disease, and prostate cancer recurrence, which warrants replication.
Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest
No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.
Acknowledgments
We thank the men who participated in these studies; without their help, this work would not be possible.
Grant Support: Grants RO1 CA056678, RO1 CA082664, RO1 CA092579, and P50 CA097186 from the National Cancer Institute, with additional support from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the Intramural Program of the National Human Genome Research Institute.
The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked advertisement in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
Footnotes
Note: Supplementary data for this article are available at Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention Online (http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/).
- Received August 10, 2009.
- Revision received October 19, 2009.
- Accepted October 27, 2009.
References
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