-308 GA Promoter Shows Similar Rates in China as the West

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Leuk Lymphoma. 2006 Oct;47(10):2189-93. Links

Tumor necrosis factor alpha promoter polymorphism and the risk of

chronic lymphocytic leukemia and myeloma in the Chinese

population.Au WY, Fung A, Wong KF, Chan CH, Liang R.

Department of Medicine, University of Hong Kong, Queen

Hospital, Hong Kong.

The -308 GA promoter polymorphism of tumor necrosis factor alpha

(TNFalpha) has been reported to be associated with an increased risk

of lymphoid malignancies in Caucasians.

We studied the incidence and prognostic significance of this

polymorphism in Chinese patients with plasma cell myeloma (PCM),

chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and lymphomas. Despite a far

lower incidence of PCM and CLL in the Chinese population compared

with Caucasians, the rates of TNFalpha-308A were similar to those in

Caucasians, both in the study and control populations. Similarly,

there was no increased rate of TNFalpha-308A in all the lymphomas

studied, irrespective of lineage. However, TNFalpha-308A is

significantly associated with female CLL cases and confers a strong

negative prognostic impact for Chinese CLL.

These argue for a possible biological role for increased TNFalpha

production in CLL progression in low-risk individuals.

PMID: 17071494 [PubMed - in process]