Monika Sivoňová, Iveta Waczulíková, Ján Kliment, Dušan Dobrota
Introduction: Biotransformation enzymes, glutathione S-transferases (GST) are involved in the metabolism of numerous potential carcinogens. Some of molecular-epidemiological studies pointed out that GST polymorphisms might impact individual susceptibility to the prostate cancer. Material and methods: The aim of our study was to estimate population GST genotype frequencies in the Slovak population of men aged 50 years or older, and to evaluate the GST frequencies also in 129 patients with prostate cancer in order to compare the evaluated proportions with those found in the age-standardized controls. Results: We found that the GST proportions in the selected population of men were not significantly different from those estimated in already published data (GSEC project). Further, we did not find significant differences in the age-standardized GST frequencies between healthy subjects and men diagnosed with prostate cancer. Conclusion: Our results on the frequencies of GST genotypes do not support of the hypothesis that genetically compromised function of GST is associated with prostate cancer etiology overall. But we cannot rule out this association. However, such validation requires hundreds to thousands of patients as follows from the sample size calculated using estimates found in our study for 80 % test power and 5 % significance.