Vitamin D receptor gene polymorphism in Japanese patients with prostate cancer

Vitamin D receptor gene polymorphism was determined in 66 and 60 Japanese p atients with prostate cancer and non cancer controls, respectively. In cont rast to previous reports showing an association between vitamin D receptor polymorphism of a TaqI restriction fragment length polymorphism at codon 35 2 (genotype tt) and prostate cancer in an American population, the frequenc y of genotype tt is less than one percent in the Japanese population. There was no difference between the patients and the controls in the vitamin D r eceptor TaqI genotype. In patients with metastatic prostate cancer, genotyp e TT had a tendency to shorter progression free survival compared to genoty pe Tt, but the number of patients was limited.