The effect of this variant on cholesterol metabolism and its possible relevance to cancer phenotype was investigated using wild type (WT) and C282Y-HFE transfected human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells.
Adjusted for other variables including C282Y homozygosity, very low and very high serum transferrin saturation were associated with increased overall cancer incidence.
Two frequent mutations in the HFE gene, H63D and C282Y, are associated with hemochromatosis type I, an inherited iron overload disease and, possibly, with cancer.
In patients with breast, ovarian, and endometrial cancer, C282Y frequencies were also low (1.0, 1.3, and 3.8%, respectively), and no cancer risk associated with the C282Y mutation was found.
Given the population frequency of C282Y and the connection between iron and cancer, clarification of the mechanism of HFE associations in leukemia and cancer will have strong implications in public health.
However, odds ratios computed in the present study suggest that increased (or decreased) risk for developing specific types of malignancy may be associated with the inheritance of HFE C282Y or H63D.