Genetic variants in the H2AFX promoter region are associated with risk of sporadic breast cancer in non-Hispanic white women aged ≤55 years

The histone protein family member X (H2AFX) is important in maintaining chromatin structure and genetic stability. Genetic variants in H2AFX may alter protein functions and thus cancer risk. In this case-control study, we genotyped four common single nucleotide polymorphisms (i.e., −1654A > G [rs643788], −1420G > A [rs8551], and −1187T > C [rs7759] in the H2AFX promoter region and 1057C > T [rs7350] in the 3′ untranslated region (UTR)) in 467 patients with sporadic breast cancer and 488 cancer-free controls. All female subjects were non-Hispanic whites aged ≤55 years. We found that significantly increased risk of breast cancer was associated with variant genotypes in the H2AFX promoter: adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 1.80, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.38–2.34 for −1654AG/GG; OR = 1.40, 95% CI = 1.07–1.83 for −1420GA/AA; and OR = 1.65, 95% CI = 1.26–2.16 for −1187TC/CC. Furthermore, the number of variant alleles in the promoter haplotypes was associated with increased risks of breast cancer in a dose-response manner (OR = 6.08, 95% CI = 3.25–11.38; OR = 6.83, 95% CI = 3.83–12.18; and OR = 23.61, 95% CI = 3.95–140.99 for one, two, and three variant alleles, respectively) ( P trend < 0.0001). Age at onset of breast cancer significantly decreased as the number of variant alleles increased ( P trend = 0.024). However, these effects were not observed in the 3′UTR 1057C > T polymorphism. Therefore, we believe that H2AFX promoter polymorphisms may contribute to the etiology of sporadic breast cancer in young non-Hispanic white women. Larger association studies and related functional studies are warranted to confirm these findings.