ADH1B histidine allele (rs1229984), CYP2E1 rs3813867 heterozygous genotype, and GSTT1 deletion conferred protection against HNSCC (OR: 0.318 [0.04-0.75], OR: 0.13 [0.02-0.94], and OR: 0.12 [0.02-0.60], respectively) while GSTP1 (rs1695) Val/Val genotype was related to an increased risk (OR: 4.12 [1.11-15.31]).
Two SNPs were associated with SCCHN risk: ADH1B rs1229984 A allele (OR = 0.7; 95% CI, 0.6-0.9) and ALDH2 rs2238151 C allele (OR = 1.2; 95% CI, 1.1-1.4).
The authors conducted a hospital-based study of 1110 patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) and a control group of 1129 patients to replicate the associations reported by a recent, large European study between 2 potentially functional single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) genes, a substitution in ADH1B at amino acid 48 from arginine to histidine (R48H) (reference SNP number [rs]1229984; guanine to adenine [G-->A]) and a substitution in ADH7 at amino acid 92 from alanine to glycine (A92G) (rs1573496; cytosine to guanine [C-->G]), and the risk of squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN).