Polymorphic Genotypes of Enzymes Involved in Carcinogen Metabolism as Risk Factors for the Development of Human Cervical Cancer

Polymorphisms of the genes for enzymes participating in the metabolism of several carcinogens have been identified. These polymorphisms are associated with varieties in the enzymatic activity or substrate specificity, and thus additive or multiplicative risks for development of various human cancers. In this study, we compared the genotype frequencies of four enzymes (CYP1A1, CYP2D6, N-acetyltransferase and glutathione S-transferase) from cervical cancer patients and healthy control individuals, to estimate the importance of polymorphisms in human papillomavirus infection and development of cervical cancer. The frequency of the Slow acetylator N-acetyltransferase genotype differed significantly between cervical cancer patients and healthy controls (P < 0.05, x2 = 4.24). No significant difference was found between these two groups in the frequency of any of the other genotypes studied. These findings suggest that the arylamine compounds metabolized by N-acetylation play an important role in human cervical carcinogenesis.