AIM: To test the hypothesis that E-cadherin gene (CDH1)C-160A promoter variant genotype is associated with an increased risk for developing gastric cancer.METHODS: In this population-based case-control study of gastric cancer in Jiangsu Province, China, we performed polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) to genotype the C-160A polymorphism of CDH1 promoter in 206 non-cardia gastriccancer patients and 261 age- and sex-matched but unrelated cancer-free controls.RESULTS: The frequencies of genotypes CC, CA and AA were 57.8%, 36.4% and 5.8% in gasfric cancer cases,respectively, and 58.2%, 34.9% and 6.9% in controls respectively. The distributions of CDH1 genotypes were not significantly different between gastric cancer cases and controls (P = 0.87 for genotype frequency and P = 0.92for allele frequency). Compared with the CC genotype, the CA and AA genotypes were not associated with an increased risk for non-cardia gastric cancer (adjusted odds ratios (OR)= 1.15, and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) = 0.78-1.72for CA genotype, and OR = 0.90 and 95% CI = 0.42-2.01for AA genotype).CONCLUSION: E-cadherin gene C-160A promoter polymorphism may not play a major role in the etiology of non-cardia gastric cancer in Chinese population.