Association of angiotensin-converting enzyme gene insertion/deletion polymorphism with cervical cancer in an Algerian population

Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) has been reported to be associated with the pathogenesis and progression of human cancers. Nevertheless, the details of that role remain inconclusive. We conducted this case-control study to determine the frequency of the ACE I/D polymorphism and its relationship to the risk of cervical cancer in the Algerian population. Genotype analysis of the ACE I/D polymorphism was performed using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in DNA isolated from peripheral blood samples of 88 cervical cancer patients and 161 healthy controls subjects. Overall, the frequencies of ID, II, and DD genotypes showed a significant difference between cervical cancer patients and controls (p <0.0001). The I allele frequencies were more frequent in cervical cancer patients than in healthy subjects. Contrary to expectation, individuals’ carriers of the I allele (ID +II) had a significant increase in cervical cancer risk when using the genotype DD as the reference category (II+ID vs. DD: OR, 6; 95% CI, 2.71-13.29, p <0.0001). Our results indicate that ACE I/D polymorphism may contribute to the development of cervical oncogenesis and might be used as a common risk factor for cervical cancer susceptibility.