No studies have examined the relationship between COX-2 8473T>C polymorphism and the risk of nasopharyngeal carcinoma in Chinese population. Material and methods: 296 patients with nasopha-ryngeal carcinoma and 300 age and gender-matched healthy controls recruited were genotyped by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). Cancer risk associated with the genotypes was estimated as odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) using unconditioned

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... gistic regression. Results: There was significant difference in the distribution of COX-2 8473T>C polymorphism genotype between na-sopharyngeal carcinoma patients and healthy controls (P=0.027). When the TT genotype was used as the reference group, the CC genotype was associated with significantly decreased risk for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (adjusted OR=0.67, 95% CI=0.33-0.83; P=0.01). Under the recessive model of inheritance, the CC genotype was associated with significantly decreased risk for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (adjusted OR=0.43, 95% CI=0.37-0.81; P=0.007). Furthermore, the C allele was associated with significantly decreased risk for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (adjusted OR=0.48, 95% CI=0.39-0.85; P=0.009). Conclusion: These data suggested that COX-2 8473T>C polymorphism was associated with reduced risk of nasopharyngeal carcinoma.