Association of <i>CDK8</i> Gene Polymorphisms with Cervical Cancer in Han Women in Southwest China

<b><i>Background:</i></b> Cervical cancer (CC) is the most prevalent gynecological tumor among women. Cyclin-dependent kinase 8 (<i>CDK8</i>), which plays a crucial role in cellular transcriptional processes and various signaling pathways, has been identified as a key oncogenic factor in numerous cancers. However, limited data exists on the correlation between <i>CDK8</i> and CC. The objective of our study was to investigate whether there is an association between <i>CDK8</i> gene polymorphisms and the development of CC in Han women from Southwest China. <b><i>Materials and methods:</i></b> A total of 300 unrelated CC patients and 335 healthy controls from Southwest China were included in the study. The polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis was used to genotype the two tag single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of <i>CDK8</i> gene (rs17083838 and rs7992670), and the relationship between the two tag SNPs and CC incidence was analyzed by SNPstats software. Multifactor dimensionality reduction (MDR) was used to analyze the interaction of multiple polymorphisms of the <i>CDK8</i> gene. The false-positive report probability (FPRP) was used to verify the effective correlation. <b><i>Results:</i></b> The frequency of the A allele of <i>CDK8</i> rs17083838 in the CC group was significantly higher than that in the control group (25% vs. 12%, <i>p</i> < 0.0001, odds ratio (OR): 0.42, 95% confidence intervals [CI]: 0.31-0.58). The frequency of the A allele at rs7992670 was higher in the CC group than that in the control group (52% vs. 45%, <i>p</i> = 0.026, OR: 0.78, 95% CI: 0.63-0.97). MDR analysis showed that rs17083838 and rs7992670 as the overall model was the best model, the detection accuracy was 0.6157, and the cross-validation consistency was 10/10 (<i>p</i> < 0.0001). In addition, 22 valid FRPR values were verified by using the FPRP detection method. <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> The two SNPs of the <i>CDK8</i> gene may be associated with the increased risk of CC in the Han population in Southwest China.