ELAC2 and prostate cancer risk in Afro-Caribbeans of Tobago

To test the hypothesis that variation in the putative prostate cancer susceptibility gene ELAC2 contributes to the elevated risk of prostate cancer in Afro-Caribbean males from Tobago, we genotyped the S217L and A514T polymorphisms, previously reported to be associated with prostate cancer risk in a large sample of cases and controls. The frequency of the high-risk Leu allele at the S217L site was the same in cases and controls. Both cases and controls were homozygous for the low-risk Ala allele at the A514T site. In addition, we sequenced the exons and 3'- and 5'-flanking regions of ELAC2 in 24 individuals with histologically confirmed prostate cancer. We identified 17 new single nucleotide polymorphisms. An A(-1196)T polymorphism, which alters a predicted TATA box consensus sequence, was tested in cases and controls, and no significant difference in allele or genotype frequencies was observed. The absence of ELAC2 mutations and lack of association between polymorphisms in ELAC2 and prostate cancer in cases and controls leads us to conclude that ELAC2 does not contribute significantly to the elevated prevalence of prostate cancer in Afro-Caribbean males of Tobago.