Background & Aims: Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women and the second most common cause of death from cancer. In Iran, of 10 to 15 women, one woman has the risk of breast cancers. The RHOB gene is one of the genes that is associated with cancer and the coding of the protein with GTPase functional and studies have shown that expression of this gene increases in breast cancer. The human-RHOB-gene promoter harbors a VNTR polymorphism which is located 820 bp upstream of the transcriptional start site which carries 34 bp tandem repeat.

Materials & Methods: In this study, blood samples were taken from 138 controls and 136 patients with breast cancer. After DNA extraction, PCR and electrophoresis were done and the collected data were analyzed with χ2 and regression logestic tests.

Results: In this study, 10 different alleles in promoter VNTR of RHOB gene were found that most of them were alleles with 9 and 10 repeat. The number of sick people who have repeat allele 9 were significantly higher than the healthy controls.

Conclusion: The results showed that alleles with  9 repeat increases risk of developing breast cancer. [OR₌0.515(95%CI=0.317-0.836), P=0.007 ]

SOURCE: URMIA MED J 2016: 27(8): 712 ISSN: 1027-3727