Seyed Amir Jalali - Department of Immunology, Medical School, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Fatemeh Homaei Shandiz - Surgical Oncology Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
Jalil Tavakol Afshari - Immunology Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran & Department of Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
Maryam Davarpanah Tanha Ghochan - Physiology Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
Amin Reza Nikpoor - Immunology Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran & Department of Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
Mojgan Mohammadi - Department of Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran & Allergy Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.

Background: The First apoptosis signal (FAS) and First apoptosis signal ligand (FASL) genes initiate the apoptosis pathway, playing a central role in the tumor growth and metastasis. Gene polymorphisms including -1377 G/A in the promoter region of FAS and -844 C/T in the promoter region of FASL have shown to change the transcription activities of these genes. Methods: In this study we evaluated association of these polymorphisms with risk of metastasis of breast cancer, in a population selected from Mashhad, Iran. A total of 115 patients with breast cancer and 115 controls were recruited in this case-control study. Polymerase Chain Reaction-based Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) was applied for genotyping on extracted DNA from participant’s blood. Unconditional logistic regression was used to estimate cancer risk by calculating odds ratios (OR) and their 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs). Results: There was no significant association between these genetic polymorphisms and breast cancer risk. Additionally, our results showed no significant influence from the above mentioned gene polymorphisms on metastasis of breast cancer. Conclusions: These results suggest that the FAS-1377G/A and FASL-844 C/T gene polymorphism don’t have much influence on the susceptibility to metastasis of breast cancer in northeastern Iranian population. Therefore, we suggest to investigate impact of other candidate gene polymorphisms on metastasis of breast cancer for future research.

Breast cancer, Fas Ligand, Fas receptor, Gene polymorphism, Metastasis