Subjects who were initially cancer-free and carrying certain genetic variants of TCF7L2, most notably the T allele of rs7903146, have an increased risk of colon cancer.
We identified two regions that specifically bind the β-catenin/TCF-4 complex in vitro and in vivo, identifying HMGA1 as an immediate target of the β-catenin/TCF-4 signalling pathway in colon cancer.
The present meta-analysis indicated that there were significantly associations between the TCF7L2rs7903146 polymorphism and risk of breast, prostate and colon cancers, rather than colorectal cancer, lung cancer, and ovarian cancer.