Caspase-8 (CASP8) plays a key role in apoptosis.We examined by genotyping whether the-652 six-nucleotide insertion-deletion (6N ins/del) polymorphism in the CASP8 promoter region was associated with prostate cancer risk in a hospital-based case-control study of 406 Chinese prostate cancer patients and 408 age-matched cancerfree controls.Additionally,23 prostate cancer tissues were analyzed for CASP8 mRNA expression.We found a significantly decreased prostate cancer risk for the 6N ins/del genotype [adjusted odds ratio (OR)=0.68;95% confidence interval (CI)=0.51-0.92] and del/del genotype (OR=0.34;95% CI=0.19-0.63) compared with the ins/ins genotype.The 6N del allele was associated dose-dependently with decreased prostate cancer risk (P trend=0.001).RT-PCR showed that individuals with the 6N del allele had lower CASP8 mRNA levels than those with the ins/ins genotype (P=0.024).These findings suggested that the CASP8-652 6N ins/del polymorphism may affect the susceptibility to prostate cancer and reduce prostate cancer risk among Chinese men.
