Abstract

Interleukin-7 (IL-7) has always been found to play an important role in developing and maintaining lymphoid cells. IL-7 promotes the growth of tumor cells in breast cancer (BC) patients. Several studies have recently identified an association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the lethal-7 (let-7) miRNA binding site within the 3' untranslated region (3'UTR) of the KRAS gene with the risk of developing various types of cancer. The current research is a combined analysis of our previous work, which sought to establish whether the IL7RA rs6897932 and KRAS rs61764370 polymorphisms were correlated with BC susceptibility in a diverse population of Kerala, South India. The results for genetic analysis performed to detect IL7RA rs6897932 and KRAS rs61764370 employing the polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method in our previous publications has been taken through a combined analysis to get overall picture of their combined effect on BC. Odds ratio (OR) with 95% class interval (CI) were used to evaluate the relationship of IL7RA (rs6897932) polymorphism with BC susceptibility. Statistical analysis was performed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS; version 21.0) software and Medcalc software (version 16.4.3). The IL7RA rs6897932 and KRAS rs61764370 polymorphisms were found to differ between case and control groups, confirming our previous findings and indicating that the IL7RA and KRAS genes may play a role in the pathogenesis of BC in the South Indian population. To validate the current study's findings, more advanced and prospective research with larger sample sizes is needed.