| Abstract: | Objective To conduct a case-control study on the association of the nucleotide polymorphisms in the promoter region of the matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) gene with phenotype of esophageal cancer. Methods All subjects were unrelated residents in northern regions of China. Polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) analysis was used to determine the MMP-9 genotypes. Results The overall distribution of genotypes in the patients was not different from that in the controls (OR=0.77, 95% CI=0.45-1.34; P=0.36). There were no significant differences between the patients and the control subjects in terms of the distributions of sex and age, smoking status, alcohol dependence, pickled diet status, or history of environmental exposure. The patients were further examined with stratifications by age, sex, grade, depth of tumor invasion, lymphatic invasion, venous invasion and TNM staging. The results showed no pronounced association among the stratifications. Conclusion There is no significant association between the MMP-9 single nucleotide polymorphism genotypes and phenotype of esophageal cancer. |
