Genetic Association Study of Two Variants within RFX6 and SLC22A3 for Their Potential Role in Prostate Cancer Predisposition

Prostate cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths among men worldwide. Research has shown that genetic variations can increase an individual's risk of developing this disease. In this study, we investigated the potential role of two genetic variants, one within RFX6 and another within SLC22A3, in predisposition to prostate cancer. A genetic association study was conducted, involving a case-control design with 112 prostate cancer cases and 95 individuals affected by benign prostatic hyperplasia who served as controls and had no history of cancer. The genotypes of the two variants, rs339331 in RFX6 and rs9364554 in SLC22A3, were determined using tetra-primer ARMS-PCR. In this study, a multi-stage strategy was employed to analyze the data obtained from genotyping and to assess the association of these two variants with prostate cancer risk. For statistical analysis, Chi-squared, Fisher’s exact test and logistic regression were performed to evaluate the association of variants with prostate cancer and Gleason score. The results suggest that the rs9364554 variant in SLC22A3 is not associated with prostate cancer risk under either additive or multiplicative genetic models, while the variant in RFX6 is significantly associated with prostate cancer susceptibility. The TT genotype of rs339331 indicated a possible protective effect against prostate adenocarcinoma (CI 95% = 0/009 -0/725, P-value = 0/009, OR = 0/083). In conclusion, our study provides evidence that the genetic variant rs339331 within RFX6 is significantly associated with prostate cancer susceptibility and may have a potential protective effect against prostate adenocarcinoma. It should be mentioned that more research is needed to investigate the possible protective effect of the TT genotype of rs9364554 against prostate cancer risk in other populations and various ethnic groups and particularly larger sample sizes are required to confirm this association.