Association of IL-10 polymorphisms with prostate cancer risk and grade of disease

Animal and in vitro models of prostate cancer demonstrate high IL-10 levels result in smaller tumors, fewer metastases, and reduced angiogenesis compared to controls. We sought to examine the hypothesis that genotypes correlated with low IL-10 production may be associated with increased prostate cancer risk among Finnish male participants from the Alpha-tocopherol Beta-carotene Cancer Prevention Study. DNA from 584 prostate cancer cases and 584 controls was genotyped for four IL-10 alleles, −1082, −819, −592, and 210. DNA from more of the controls than cases failed to amplify, resulting in 509 cases and 382 controls with genotype data for −1082; 507 and 384 for −819; 511 and 386 for −592; and 491 and 362 for 210. Odds ratios for the association between the IL-10 genotypes and risk of prostate cancer or, among cases only, high-grade disease were calculated using logistic regression. In this population, the −819 TT and −592 AA low expression genotypes were highly correlated. These two genotypes also were associated with increased prostate cancer susceptibility (OR = 1.92, 95% CI 1.07–3.43 for −819) and, among cases, with high-grade tumors (OR = 2.56, 95% CI 1.26–5.20 for −819). These data demonstrate genotypes correlated with low IL-10 production are associated with increased risk of prostate cancer and with high-grade disease in this population.