Smoking and COX-2 functional polymorphisms interact to increase the risk of gastric cardia adenocarcinoma in chinese population

Background: Over-expression and increased activity of cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 induced by smoking has been implicated in the development of cancer. This study aimed to explore the interaction between smoking and functional polymorphisms of COX-2 in modulation of gastric cardia adenocarcinoma (GCA) risk. Methods and Findings: Three COX-2 polymorphisms, including -1195G>A (rs689466), -765G>C (rs20417), and 587Gly>Arg (rs3218625), were genotyped in 357 GCA patients and 985 controls. In the multivariate logistic regression analysis, we found that the -1195AA, -765GC, and 587Arg/Arg genotypes were associated with increased risk of GCA (OR = 1.50, 95% CI = 1.05-2.13; OR = 2.06, 95% CI = 1.29-3.29 and OR = 1.67, 95% CI = 1.04-2.66, respectively). Haplotype association analysis showed that compared with G _-1195-G _-765- G _Gly587Arg, the A _-1195-C _-765-A _Gly587Arg conferred an increased risk of GCA (OR = 2.49, 95% CI = 1.54-4.01). Moreover, significant multiplicative interactions were observed between smoking and these three polymorphisms of -1195G>A, -765G>C, and 587Gly>Arg, even after correction by false discovery rate (FDR) method for multiple comparisons (FDR-P _interaction = 0.006, 5.239×10 ^-4 and 0.017, respectively). Similarly, haplotypes incorporating these three polymorphisms also showed significant interaction with smoking in the development of GCA (P for multiplicative interaction = 2.65×10 ^-6). Conclusion: These findings indicated that the functional polymorphisms of COX-2, in interaction with smoking, may play a substantial role in the development of GCA.