BACKGROUND: Recent evidence indicates that single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the Cox-2 gene may modulate the risk of colorectal adenoma development.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: We explored possible associations between Cox-2 polymorphisms and risk of adenoma development in an African American case-control study comprising 72 cases of advanced adenomas and 146 polyp-free controls. An exhaustive approach of genotyping 13 haplotype-tagging SNPs (ht SNPs) distributed over the entire COX-2 gene was used.

RESULTS: Statistically significant inverse associations were observed between the heterozygous genotypes at the 5229 G>T polymorphism in intron 5 [odds ratio (OR)=0.42; confidence interval (CI)=0.19-0.92; p=0.03] and at the 10935 A>G polymorphism in the 3' flanking region downstream from the poly A signals (OR=0.39; CI=0.18-0.83;p=0.01) and the risk for colorectal adenoma development.

CONCLUSION: The data from our pilot study suggest that allelic variants of the COX-2 gene significantly influence the risk of adenoma development in the African American population.