J Cancer 2019; 10(5):1086-1096. doi:10.7150/jca.29390 This issue Cite
Research Paper
1. Department of Oncology, The Affiliated Sir Run Run Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China
2. Department of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province,China
3. Department of Thoracic surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China
4. Department of Urology, Nanjing First Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China
† These three authors contribute equally to this article
Background: TNF-α-308G/A (rs1800629) polymorphism has been previously implicated in the susceptibility to esophageal cancer, but results of these studies remained controversial or ambiguous. A meta-analysis was conducted to provide a more reliable conclusion about the association between TNF-ɑ-308G/A polymorphism and risk of esophageal cancer.
Methods: Databases such as PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science and CNKI were searched for relevant articles published till June 1, 2018. We used the pooled odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) to evaluate the strength of such associations. Subgroup analysis was carried out according to ethnicity, source of controls and genotyping method. A trial sequential analysis (TSA) was performed to reduce the risk of type I error and evaluate whether the results of our meta-analysis were credible.
Results: A total of 9 published case-control studies with 1,435 esophageal cancer patients and 3,762 healthy controls were identified. Overall, our results indicated no significant correlation between TNF-α-308G/A polymorphism and increased risk of esophageal cancer in the fixed-effects model (allele model: pooled OR=1.11, 95% CI: 0.96-1.27, homozygote model: pooled OR=1.23, 95% CI: 0.77-1.95, heterozygote model: pooled OR=1.14, 95% CI: 0.97-1.35, dominant model: pooled OR=1.14, 95% CI: 0.97-1.34 and recessive model: pooled OR=1.00, 95% CI: 0.64-1.56). Subgroup analysis by ethnicity, source of controls and genotyping method showed no significant increase in the risk of esophageal cancer. TSA results need further investigation with a large sample size to certify such association.
Conclusions: This meta-analysis study suggested no significant association between TNF-ɑ-308G/A polymorphism and the risk of esophageal cancer.
Keywords: TNF-ɑ-308G/A, Polymorphism, Esophageal cancer, Risk, Meta-analysis.