Background: Biological and epidemiologic evidence suggested that androgen and its receptor may play an important role in ovarian carcinogenesis. However, results of previous association studies about ovarian cancer and AR CAG repeat polymorphism were inconsistent. Furthermore, none of these studies were conducted in Asians.
Methods: We evaluated the relationship between AR CAG repeat length and epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) risk among a Chinese population including 1800 pathologically confirmed EOC patients and 1800 frequency matched controls.
Results: Women with longer AR CAG repeats had a decreased EOC risk (OR=0.87 for per CAG_A increase, 95% CI: 0.81-0.95). Compared to those with shorter (<22) CAG_A repeat length, women with of longer (≥22) CAG_A repeats had a 34% decreased EOC risk (OR=0.66, 95% CI: 0.57-0.75). For CAG_S and CAG_L, the results remained consistent.
Conclusions: Our findings suggest that androgen signaling contributes to the development of ovarian cancer.
Keywords: AR; CAG; Ovarian cancer; Polymorphism; Repeat.
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