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The article presents the study conducted regarding the role of progesterone receptor (PGR) gene in endometrial cancer risk development in China. The study which collected DNA samples and information from Shanghai Endometrial Cancer Study aims to determine the association of PGR with the cancer risk in the Chinese population. The result shows that the gene is associated with the risk due to the polymorphism in the PGR region.

Background: Obesity is a major risk factor for endometrial cancer. Obesity, particularly central obesity, is considered as a systemic inflammatory condition and is related strongly to insulin resistance. C-reactive protein (CRP) is the most recognized biologic marker of chronic systematic inflammation, and it is conceivable that the CRP gene may work together with obesity in the development of endometrial cancer.Methods: On the basis of a population-based case-control study in a Chinese population, the authors obtained obesity measurements and data on 6 CRP single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from 1046 patients with newly diagnosed endometrial cancer (cases) and from 1035 age frequency-matched controls. The association of the CRP SNPs with endometrial cancer risk and their modification on the association between obesity and endometrial cancer risk were evaluated.Results: Although CRP SNPs alone were not associated with endometrial cancer, the associations of endometrial cancer with central obesity, measured as the waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and the waist circumference, seemed to be stronger in women who were homozygous for the major allele of reference SNP (rs)1130864 (cytidine [C]/C) than in women who had the C/thymidine (T) and T/T genotypes (interaction test: P = .013 for WHR; P = .083 for waist circumference). When the women were stratified further by menopausal status, the observed interactions persisted mainly in premenopausal women (interaction test: P < .001 for WHR; P = .002 for waist circumference).Conclusions: The current results suggested that, in the Chinese population that was studied, obesity-related insulin resistance and proinflammatory effects may play an important role in endometrial cancer risk, and these effects were modified significantly by the CRP SNP rs1130864. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sex steroid hormones play a central role in the development of endometrial cancer. Sex hormone‐binding globulin (SHBG) modulates the bioavailability of circulating sex hormones and regulates their signaling systems in target cells. Epidemiologic studies have demonstrated that blood SHBG levels are associated inversely with the risk of endometrial cancer. A functional polymorphism, an amino acid substitution of asparagine (Asp) for aspartic acid (Asn) at residue 327 (Asp327Asn) (reference sequence 6259), in the SHBG gene recently was identified and has been associated with an increased half‐life and elevated blood levels of SHBG. The authors tested the hypothesis that this genetic variance is associated with a reduced risk of endometrial cancer in the Shanghai Endometrial Cancer Study, a population‐based, case‐control study that was conducted in urban Shanghai, China between 1997 and 2003.This study included 1037 women with newly diagnosed endometrial cancer ages 30 years and 69 years and 1031 age‐matched controls from the community who had completed an in‐person interview and donated a blood and/or buccal cell sample to the study. Genotyping for the Asp327Asn polymorphism was performed by using the TaqMan method. Odds ratio (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) derived from logistic regression models were used to evaluate the association between the genetic variation and endometrial cancer risk.The allele frequencies of Asn were 15.0% in cases and 17.1% in controls (P = .06). The variant Asn327 allele was associated with a reduced risk of endometrial cancer in postmenopausal women (OR, 0.72; 95% CI, 0.55–0.93) but not in premenopausal women (OR, 1.02; 95% CI, 0.74–1.42). The inverse association was more pronounced among postmenopausal women who had a low body mass index (OR, 0.48; 95% CI, 0.31–0.76) or longer years of menstruation (OR, 0.64; 95% CI, 0.46–0.89), although the results from tests for multiplicative interaction were not statistically significant.The current results suggested that the codon 327 Asn allele in the SHBG gene may be related to a reduced risk of endometrial cancer among postmenopausal women. Cancer 2007. © 2007 American Cancer Society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]