• Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA. daughers@mail.nih.gov

BACKGROUND: The Gln allele of the Arg462Gln polymorphism in RNASEL results in a threefold decrease in enzymatic activity, a reported deficiency in apoptotic response, and has been associated with prostate cancer in some high-risk family studies. The relationship of this variant to sporadic prostate cancer remains uncertain.

METHODS: We conducted a nested case-control study of 1,317 prostate cancer cases and 1,842 controls from the screening arm of the prostate, lung, colorectal, and ovarian (PLCO) cancer screening trial. Conditional logistic regression was used to evaluate the association between the RNASEL Arg462Gln polymorphism and prostate cancer.

RESULTS: No statistically significant association was observed between the Arg462Gln polymorphism and prostate cancer (compared to Arg/Arg, Gln/Arg: OR= 0.99 95% CI 0.84-1.16; Gln/Gln: OR= 0.95 95% CI 0.74-1.21), although slight non-significant differences in risk were observed among men with the Gln/Gln genotype by stage and grade.

CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that the RNASEL Gln/Gln genotype does not play an important role in the etiology of prostate cancer in the general population.