Abstract
Somatic mutations in the
EGFR
tyrosine kinase (TK) domain play a critical role in the development and treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Strong genetic influence on susceptibility to these mutations has been suggested. To identify the genetic factors conferring risk for the
EGFR
TK mutations in NSCLC, a case-control study was conducted in 141 Taiwanese NSCLC patients by focusing on three functional polymorphisms in the
EGFR
gene [-216G/T, intron 1(CA)n and R497K]. Allelic imbalance (AI) of the
EGFR
-216G/T polymorphism was also tested in the heterozygous patients as well as in the NCI-60 cancer cell lines to further verify its function. We found that the frequencies of the alleles -216T and CA-19 are significantly higher in the patients with any mutation (p=0.032 and 0.01, respectively), in particular in those with exon 19 microdeletions (p=0.006 and 0.033, respectively), but not in the patients with L858R mutation. The -216T allele is favored to be amplified in both tumor DNA of lung cancer patients and cancer cell lines. We conclude that the local haplotype structures across the
EGFR
gene may favor the development of cellular malignancies and thus significantly confer risk to the occurrence of
EGFR
mutations in NSCLC, particularly the exon 19 microdeletions.