Meta-analysis of Associations between Interleukin-17 Gene Polymorphisms and Risk of Gastric Cancer

Abstract

<b>Background:</b> Previous studies have indicated that single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the interleukin-17(IL-17) gene are associated with an increased risk of gastric cancer. However, the findings were inconsistent.Materials and <br/><b>Methods</b>: To provide a more reliable estimation of the association between SNPs in the IL-17gene and the susceptibility to gastric cancer, we searched PubMed, CNKI, and Wan Fang databases and selectedfinally six studies covering 2,366 cases and 3,205 controls to perform a meta-analysis. <br/><b>Results</b>: Statistical analysesshowed that an rs2275913 polymorphism within the IL-17A gene was significantly associated with an increasedrisk of gastric cancer using a generalized odds ratio (ORG, a model-free approach). Moreover, we also found thatthe ‘A’ allele carriers of IL-17A rs2275913 had a significant link with clinicopathological features. However, nosignificant positive signals were observed in the association analysis of the rs3748067 and rs763780 polymorphismswith the risk of gastric cancer in IL-17A and IL-17F, respectively. <br/><b>Conclusions</b>: Despite some limitations, thepresent meta-analysis provided a more precise estimation of the relationship between the IL-17 gene SNPs andgastric cancer risk compared with individual studies.