Association between estrogen and progesterone receptors gene polymorphisms with prostate cancer

Prostate cancer, the most prevalent cancer among men, is a steroid hormone receptor-dependent cancer. Mutations in estrogen receptors (ER&alpha and ER&beta) and progesterone receptor (PR) may cause steroid hormones to be involved as initiators or promoters in prostate carcinogenesis. The purpose of this study was to determine the association and frequency of incidence of the polymorphisms in the intron1 of ER&alpha, exon 5 of ER&beta and intron 7 of PR in the risk of prostate cancer. Prostate cancer patients admitted to the Department of Urology, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Science and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, India (n=100) and an equal number of matching controls visiting same center underwent PCR-RFLP analysis for ERs and PR genes. In the present case -control study, the results show that those patients with the genotype ER&alpha (-/-) had significantly higher risk for prostate cancer (OR, 2.70 95% CI, 1.08–6.70, P= 0.03). But There was no association between the Rr genotype of ER&beta (OR, 1.65 95% CI, 0.52–5.23, P=0.21) and A1/A2 genotype of PR (OR, 1.90 95% CI, 0.70-5.15 P=0.204) with the risk for prostate cancer. It seems that in the studied population there was an increased risk of prostate cancer among patients carrying ER&alpha (-/-), but not with other genotypes of ER&beta and PR genes.