The human papillomavirus (HPV) is the etiologic agent of genital cancer, but alone it is incapable of inducing oncogenesis. Rather, progression to invasive lesions is associated with host immunity and interference in the process of cellular apoptosis. Among the several genes involved in cell death, theFAS gene appears to be an important factor. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether there is an association between polymorphisms of the FAS-670 gene promoter region and preinvasive and invasive lesions of the cervix. The FAS gene was evaluated for the presence of polymorphisms using polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism techniques in 225 blood samples for the control group, as well as cervical tissue from patients with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 3 (CIN 3;75 cases) or invasive carcinoma (214 cases). The AG genotype of the FAS-670 gene promoter region was significantly more frequent in women with CIN 3, with an estimated risk of three times (OR = 3.0). No difference, however, was observed in the control group and women with cervical cancer. In women with cancer, the genotypes were similar in the different histological types and degree of tumor differentiation. Assessing allelic distribution (A or G), we observed no difference in frequency of genotypes in studied groups. These data suggest that polymorphism of the promoter region of the FAS-670 gene is associated with increased risk of CIN 3, but not for invasive cancer of the cervix.
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