Background: North of Iran is amongst high incidence rate areas of gastric carcinoma where environmental carcinogenic compounds especially agricultural pesticides are massively used. Cytochrome P450 2E1 (CYP2E1) enzyme metabolically activates a large number of low molecular mass xenobiotics. The polymorphic nature of cyp2E1 gene control elements is associated with interindividual differences for toxicity of its substrates and may be responsible for increased gastric cancer susceptibility. The current study investigated the allelic frequencies of cyp2E1 gene RsaI/PstI polymorphisms and its association with gastric cancer risk in north of Iran.

Materials and Methods: This case-control study comprised of 120 gastric cancer patients and a group of 135 healthy individuals as control. Genotyping of cyp2E1 gene PstI/RsaI polymorphisms were carried out by PCR-RFLP method. Statistical analyzes were performed by Logistic regression model and P<0.05 was considered as significance level.

Results: TNM classification showed that most patients (88%) were in advanced stages when the disease was diagnosed. Frequencies of C1C1 and C1C2 genotypes of PstI/RsaI polymorphisms were 96 and 4% in case, and 99 and 1% in control group, respectively whereas homozygote C2C2 genotype was not observed in any of the subjects. In Logistic regression model no significant association was found between RsaI/PstI allelic variants and gastric cancer risk (p =0.443, OR=0.386, CI=0.034-4.395). Furthermore, no significant correlation was seen between genotypic frequencies and clinicopathological characteristics.

Conclusions: No significant association was found between cyp2E1 gene PstI/RsaI allelic variants and gastric cancer risk or clinicopathological characteristics of gastric cancer patients in north of Iran.