Bladder cancer is the most common malignancy of the urinary system. The incidence of bladder cancer of men is higher than that of women （approximately 4：1）. Here, we summarize the bladder cancer-related risk factors, in- cluding environmental and genetic factors. In recent years, although the mortality rate induced by bladder cancer has been stable or decreased gradually, the public health effect may be pronounced. The well-established risk fac- tors for bladder cancer are cigarette smoking and occupational exposure. Genetic factors also play important roles in the susceptibility to bladder cancer. A recent study demonstrated that hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer is associated with increased risk of bladder cancer. Since 2008, genome-wide association study （GWAS） has been used to identify the susceptibility loci for bladder cancer. Further gene-gene or gene-environment interaction stud- ies need to be conducted to provide more information for the etiology of bladder cancer.
Erythropoietin（EPO） is a circulating glycosylated protein hormone and has been implicated in the development and progression of non-hematopoietic tissue tumors.The objective of the present study was to determine if the EPO rs576236 polymorphism was associated with the risk of adrenal tumors.We genotyped the EPO rs576236 polymorphism in a case-control study of 288 adrenal tumor patients and 456 cancer-free controls by using the TaqMan method,and assessed the association between the polymorphism and the adrenal tumor risk by logistic regression.Furthermore,95%confidence interval（CI） was used to assess the genetic association between the polymorphism and the risk of adrenal tumor.Compared with the TT genotype,the TC genotype had a significantly increased risk of adrenal tumor[adjusted odds ratio（OR） = 1.24,95%CI = 1.12-2.22].Furthermore a significantly increased risk of adrenal tumor was found in the combined variant genotypes TC＋CC compared with the TT genotype（adjusted OR = 1.17,95%CI = 1.12-2.21）.Our present study suggests that the rs576236 polymorphism of EPO confers susceptibility to adrenal tumor in the Chinese population.
