A Case-Control Investigation of Immune Function Gene Polymorphisms and Risk of Testicular Germ Cell Tumors

There is reason to suspect that testicular germ cell tumor (TGCT) development may be influenced by cytokines, secreted proteins that modulate tumor immune surveillance activity as well as a variety of processes in the testis. To address this hypothesis, we conducted a case-control analy-sis (508 cases, 608 controls) of 32 putatively functional single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in 16 immune function genes among non-Hispanic Caucasian participants in the U.S. Servicemen’s Testicular Tumor Environmental and Endocrine Determinants Study. The TGFB1 Ex573C>T variant was positively associated with TGCT (CT/TT versus CC: odds ratio, 1.73; 95 % confidence interval, 1.01-2.95; P trend = 0.05); additionally, haplotypes of the assessed TGFB1 SNPs (509C>T, 327C>T, Ex1282C>G, and Ex573C>T) differed in frequency between cases and controls (all TGCT