• Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA.

BACKGROUND: Genome-wide association studies have identified multiple independent regions on chromosome 8q24 that are associated with cancers of the prostate, breast, colon, and bladder.

METHODS: To investigate their biological basis, we examined the possible association between 164 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the 8q24 risk regions spanning 128,101,433-128,828,043 bp, and serum androgen (testosterone, androstenedione, 3alphadiol G, and bioavailable testosterone), and sex hormone-binding globulin levels in 563 healthy, non-Hispanic, Caucasian men (55-74 years old) from a prospective cohort study (the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial). Age-adjusted linear regression models were used to determine the association between the SNPs in an additive genetic model and log-transformed biomarker levels.

RESULTS: Three adjacent SNPs centromeric to prostate cancer risk-region 2 (rs12334903, rs1456310, and rs980171) were associated with testosterone (P < 1.1 x 10(-3)) and bioavailable testosterone (P < 6.3 x 10(-4)). Suggestive associations were seen for a cluster of nine SNPs in prostate cancer risk region 1 and androstenedione (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: These preliminary findings require confirmation in larger studies but raise the intriguing hypothesis that genetic variations in the 8q24 cancer risk regions might correlate with androgen levels.

IMPACT: These results might provide some clues for the strong link between 8q24 and prostate cancer risk.