A missense substitution A49T in the steroid 5-alpha-reductase gene (SRD5A2) is not associated with prostate cancer in Finland

Abstract

Prostatic steroid 5-alpha-reductase gene (SRD5A2) encodes a critical enzyme involved in the conversion of testosterone to dihydrotestosterone. A germline mis-sense substitution (A49T) leads to a variant SRD5A2 protein, which has a 5-fold higher in vitro V(max)than the wild-type protein (Ross et al, 1998; Makridakis et al, 1999). The A49T variant was recently associated with 2.5 to 3.28-fold increased risk of prostate cancer (PC) in African-American and Hispanic men (Makridakis et al, 1999). Also, Jaffe et al (2000) reported an association between A49T and more aggressive disease among Caucasian patients. Here, we report that the prevalence of the A49T variant in 449 Finnish PC patients was 6.0%, not significantly different from 6.3% observed in 223 patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia or 5.8% in 588 population-based controls (odds ratio for PC 1.04, 95% C.I. 0.62-1.76, P = 0.89). There was no association between A49T and the family history of the patients nor with tumour stage or grade. Our results argue against a prominent role of the A49T variant as a genetic risk factor for prostate cancer development and progression in the Finnish population.