The linkage between IL-6 rs1800797 variant and breast cancer susceptibility in Bangladeshi women: A case-control study.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Breast cancer is one of the deadliest diseases affecting women in Bangladesh, and its prevalence is increasing year by year. Although several IL-6 single nucleotide polymorphisms have been implicated in BC susceptibility and prognosis in various studies, no research has been done to investigate the relationship between breast cancer and IL-6 in Bangladeshi women. This investigation aimed to explore the linkage between the rs1800797 variant of IL-6 and the susceptibility to breast carcinoma among women in Bangladesh.

METHODS: The IL-6 rs1800797 variant was genotyped in 218 subjects (110 cases and 108 controls) using the tetra-primer ARMS-PCR method. The statistical analysis was applied utilizing the SPSS software version 24.0. UALCAN database was used for IL-6 mRNA analysis, and genotype-based gene expression was retrieved from GTEx Portal.

RESULTS: This study found a significant link between IL-6 rs1800797 variants and increased chance of breast cancer across different genetic inheritance models, including additive model 1 (AG vs. GG: OR = 2.16, p  = 0.035); dominant model (AG + AA vs. GG: OR = 2.26, p  < 0.05); overdominant model (AG vs. GG + AA: OR = 2.08, p  < 0.05); and allelic model (A vs. G: OR = 2.15, p  < 0.05). However, an insignificant association of breast cancer was found in both additive model 2 (AA vs. GG: OR = 2.91, p  > 0.05) and the recessive model (AA vs. GG + AG: OR = 2.52, p  > 0.05). Under the analysis of the probability of false positive reports, no significant values were found in different models when the OR was 1.5, and the prior probability was 0.25.

CONCLUSIONS: A significant relationship was found between the IL-6 rs1800797 genetic variant and the risk of breast cancer. However, the findings of the study should be further investigated with a larger sample size to validate the correlation.