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C-reactive protein, interleukin-6, and prostate cancer risk in men aged 65 years and older

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Abstract

Inflammation is believed to play a role in prostate cancer (PCa) etiology, but it is unclear whether inflammatory markers C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) associate with PCa risk in older men. Using Cox regression, we assessed the relationship between baseline concentrations of CRP and IL-6 and the subsequent PCa risk in the Cardiovascular Health Study, a population-based cohort study of mostly European American men of ages >64 years (n = 2,234; mean follow-up = 8.7 years; 215 incident PCa cases). We also tested associations between CRP and IL-6 tagSNPs and PCa risk, focusing on SNPs that are known to associate with circulating CRP and/or IL-6. Neither CRP nor IL-6 blood concentrations was associated with PCa risk. The C allele of IL-6 SNP rs1800795 (−174), a known functional variant, was associated with increased risk in a dominant model (HR = 1.44; 95% CI = 1.03–2.01; p = 0.03), but was not statistically significant after accounting for multiple tests (permutation p = 0.21). Our results suggest that circulating CRP and IL-6 do not influence PCa risk. SNPs at the CRP locus are not associated with PCa risk in this cohort, while the association between rs1800795 and PCa risk warrants further investigation.

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Acknowledgments

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose. The authors would like to thank Dr. Leslie A. Lange and Elaine Cornell for their helpful suggestions related to this analysis. A full list of principal CHS investigators and institutions can be found at http://www.chs-nhlbi.org/pi.htm. Financial Support: This work was supported by the training grant R25-CA94880, contract numbers N01-HC-85079 through N01-HC-85086, N01-HC-35129, N01 HC-15103, N01 HC-55222, N01-HC-75150, N01-HC-45133, grant number U01 HL080295 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, with additional contribution from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Public Health Genetics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Brandon L. Pierce & Melissa A. Austin

  2. Department of Biostatistics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Mary L. Biggs

  3. Department of Epidemiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Alexander P. Reiner, Christopher Li, Annette Fitzpatrick, Christopher S. Carlson, Janet L. Stanford & Melissa A. Austin

  4. Epidemiology and Cancer Prevention Programs, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, USA

    Brandon L. Pierce, Christopher Li, Christopher S. Carlson, Janet L. Stanford & Melissa A. Austin

  5. Department of Urology, Rady Children’s Hospital, San Diego, CA, USA

    Marvalyn DeCambre

  6. Department of Health Studies, University of Chicago, 5841 South Maryland Ave, MC2007, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA

    Brandon L. Pierce

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  1. Brandon L. Pierce
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Correspondence to Brandon L. Pierce.

Additional information

This work was performed at the Institute for Public Health Genetics at the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

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Pierce, B.L., Biggs, M.L., DeCambre, M. et al. C-reactive protein, interleukin-6, and prostate cancer risk in men aged 65 years and older. Cancer Causes Control 20, 1193–1203 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-009-9320-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-009-9320-4

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