Various types of
cancer are more frequent in men than women, and
bladder cancer is one of the most common of these.
Intravesical instillation of Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) after transurethral resection is the most effective treatment for superficial
bladder cancers. The main aim of this study was to investigate for possible links between
cytokine gene polymorphisms and different outcomes after BCG
immunotherapy. Sixty patients who had been diagnosed with transitional cell
cancer were investigated. All genotyping experiments were performed using polymerase chain reaction sequence-specific primers and a commercially available kit. The genes investigated were those that code for
interleukin (IL)-1alpha, IL-1beta, IL-1R,
IL-1RA, IL-4RA,
IL-2,
IL-4,
IL-6,
IL-10,
IL-12,
interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma),
transforming growth factor-beta (
TGF-beta), and
tumor necrosis factor-alpha (
TNF-alpha). Analyses of the data identified
TGF-beta codon 25 GG (92.85% vs. 64.44%, p=0.04, OR=7.17),
IL-4 -1098 GG (16.6% vs. 0.0%, p=0.05, OR=18.33),
IL-10 -1082 GG (28.5% vs. 6.8%, p=0.05, OR=5.47), and
IL-10 -1082 GCC/GCC (28.57% vs. 4.5%, p=0.025, OR=8.4) polymorphisms as risk factors for progression of
bladder cancer.