XRCC1 Arg194Trp polymorphism, risk of nonmelanoma skin cancer and extramammary Paget’s disease in a Japanese population

The X-ray repair cross-complementing groups 1 gene plays an important role in base excision repair. At least three common single nucleotide polymorphisms frequently occur in this gene (Arg399Gln, Arg194Trp and Arg280His). Recent studies reported that these polymorphisms were associated with not only risk of visceral malignancy but also that of skin cancer such as basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, whereas the results of previous study vary among races. In this case–control study, we investigated whether these single nucleotide polymorphisms were associated with the risk of skin cancer in a Japanese population. The study population was composed of 197 patients with skin cancer (27 actinic keratoses, 47 basal cell carcinomas, 27 squamous cell carcinomas, 29 Bowen’s diseases, 46 malignant melanomas and 21 extramammary Paget’s diseases) and 93 control subjects. We genotyped two single nucleotide polymorphisms (Arg194Trp and Arg399Gln) using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragments length polymorphism analysis. We found a significantly increased risk for basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and extramammary Paget’s disease associated with Arg194Trp [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 2.347, 3.587, 3.741, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 1.02–5.39, 1.19–10.8, 1.15–12.2, respectively]. We also found a significantly decreased risk for basal cell carcinoma associated with Gln399Gln (AOR = 0.259, 95 % CI 0.07–0.96). Our data suggest that the Arg194Trp polymorphism could be associated with nonmelanoma skin cancer and extramammary Paget’s disease risk in a Japanese population.