Elevated frequency of a SstI polymorphism of the Ets-1 oncogene in non-Hodgkinʹs lymphoma patients

We studied the frequency of a SstI polymorphism of the Ets-1 oncogene in 100 patients with non-Hodgkinʹs lymphoma, 44 patients with Hodgkinʹs disease, 49 patients with chronic myeloid leukemia, and 100 controls. There was no difference in the genotype frequency between the controls and patients with either Hodgkinʹs disease or chronic myeloid leukemia. In contrast, there was a highly significant difference in the distribution of the three genotypes between the patients with non-Hodgkinʹs lymphoma and the controls with the C2 allele being more frequent in the lymphoma patients. Molecular cloning indicated that the polymorphic SstI site lay 304 bp from exon 7. This is the second association of the SstI polymorphism of the Ets-1 oncogene with a lymphoid disorder and suggests that the presence of the C2 allele is associated with a predisposition to develop a lymphoid malignancy.