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Tobacco consumption and genetic susceptibility to nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) in Thailand

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Abstract

Background

The incidence of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) varies substantially worldwide, with an endemic pocket in Southeast Asia.

Method

We assessed lifestyle and genetic factors in relation to NPC risk among 681 NPC cases and 1,078 controls from Thailand. Evaluated lifestyle factors included traditionally preserved foods, tobacco smoking, betel quid chewing, and alcohol consumption. Genetic factors included six variants implicated in a previous a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of NPC and three variants residing near the CHRNA3 and TERT genes that were linked to lung cancer risk in Asian populations. Odds ratios (OR) and 95 % confidence intervals (95 % CI) were estimated using unconditional logistic regression.

Results

Frequent consumption of fermented vegetables was associated with increased NPC risk (OR of consumption ≥weekly vs. ≤rare 1.78, 95 % CI 1.24–2.55, p trend = 0.005), as was tobacco smoking (p trend < 0.001), former and current smokers displaying OR of 1.57 (95 % CI 1.10–2.30) and 2.00 (95 % CI 1.48–2.71) compared to never smokers, respectively. Four out of six genetic variants implicated in the recent NPC GWAS were associated with NPC risk (p trend ≤ 0.03), as well as two variants (rs402710 and rs2736098) on the TERT locus at 5p15.33 (p = 0.004 and p = 0.04, respectively).

Conclusions

These results strengthen our previous observation that tobacco smoking is an important risk factor of NPC in this population. Four out of six genetic variants identified in a recent NPC GWAS were confirmed, and the association noted with variants on 5p15.33 suggests that this locus is involved in NPC susceptibility, representing a novel finding in NPC epidemiology.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to all subjects who participate in this study and field staffs for all the effort to collect the information. We would also like to thank Kevin Urayama for critically reading the manuscript and giving constructive suggestions. The work reported in this paper was undertaken during the tenure of a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) (for Jajah Fachiroh).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Histology and Cell Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Gadjah Mada University, Sekip 55281, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

    Jajah Fachiroh

  2. National Cancer Institute, Rama VI road, Ratchatawee, Bangkok, 10400, Thailand

    Suleeporn Sangrajrang & Somjin Chindavijak

  3. Genetic Epidemiology Group, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), 150 Cours Albert Thomas, 69372, Lyon cedex 08, France

    Jajah Fachiroh, Mattias Johansson, Hélène Renard, Valérie Gaborieau & Paul Brennan

  4. Genetic Cancer Susceptibility Group, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), 150 Cours Albert Thomas, 69372, Lyon cedex 08, France

    Amélie Chabrier & James D. McKay

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  1. Jajah Fachiroh
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Correspondence to James D. McKay.

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Fachiroh, J., Sangrajrang, S., Johansson, M. et al. Tobacco consumption and genetic susceptibility to nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) in Thailand. Cancer Causes Control 23, 1995–2002 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-012-0077-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-012-0077-9

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