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Aydn Gözü, MD; Arzu Ergen, PhD; Deniz Daycolu, MD; lhan Yaylm, PhD; Zafer Özsoy, MD; Turgay sbir, PhD

Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2008;134(7):725-728.

Objective  To evaluate the presence of L-myc gene variations as a genetic predisposition to head and neck nonmelanoma skin cancer (HNNMSC) and lower lip cancer (LLC).

Design  A case-control study.

Setting  An academic institute laboratory.

Participants  Twenty-four patients with HNNMSC and 27 with LLC were compared with 51 age- and sex-matched control subjects.

Main Outcome Measures  Polymerase chain reaction restriction fragment length polymorphism and agarose gel electrophoresis were used to determine the L-myc oncogene genotypes.

Results  The presence of the LS genotype was found to be significantly increased in the study group, whereas the LL genotype was not detected. The S allele was also more frequent in the study group. The SS genotype was found to correlate with aggressive tumor behavior in patients with HNNMSC and a family history of cancer. Patients with LLC displayed significantly less of the SS genotype.

Conclusions  The L-myc gene polymorphism may help detect and prevent HNNMSC and LLC in susceptible individuals. It may also contribute to estimation of tumor behavior in patients with HNNMSC.

Author Affiliations: Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Vakif Gureba Research and Education Hospital (Drs Gözü, Daycolu, and Özsoy), and Institute of Experimental Medical Research, Department of Molecular Medicine, Istanbul University (Drs Ergen, Yaylm, and sbir), Istanbul, Turkey.