1.
Contribution of catechol-O-methyltransferase Val158Met polymorphism to endometrial cancer risk in postmenopausal women: a meta-analysis.
Lin, G, Zhao, J, Wu, J, Andreevich O, R, Zhang, WH, Zhang, Y, Yu, L
Genetics and molecular research : GMR. 2013;(4):6442-53
Abstract
Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) is a critical enzyme to detoxify the carcinogenic catechol estrogen and the Val158Met polymorphism of COMT could influence its enzymatic activity. Recent epidemiological studies have investigated the correlation of COMT Val158Met polymorphism with endometrial cancer risk; however, the results are inconsistent. To better evaluate the role of COMT Val158Met in endometrial carcinogenesis, we performed this meta-analysis, considering menopausal status, study quality, ethnicity, and source of controls. Eight eligible studies including 5109 subjects were collected from PubMed, CNKI, and Chinese Biomedicine Database (updated until September 21, 2012). Although no obvious associations were detected between COMT Val158Met and endometrial cancer susceptibility in the pooled analysis, we noted significantly decreased endometrial cancer risk for Val/Met versus Val/Val, and Met/Met + Val/Met versus Val/Val genetic models in the postmenopausal female (OR = 0.795, 95%CI = 0.656-0.962, P = 0.019; and OR = 0.819, 95%CI = 0.683-0.983, P = 0.032; respectively), and similar results existed in high-quality studies (OR = 0.835, 95%CI = 0.726-0.961, P = 0.012; and OR = 0.853, 95%CI = 0.747-0.974, P = 0.019; respectively). However, no evidence of association was noted in different ethnic groups and sources of controls. In conclusion, our results suggested that the COMT Val/Val genotype might act as a potential endometrial cancer risk factor in postmenopausal women. Further studies are needed to investigate the interactions between COMT Val158Met polymorphism and endometrial cancer in a specific population.
2.
Meta-analysis of the relationship between p21 Ser31Arg polymorphism and lung cancer susceptibility.
Lin, G, Fang, F, Yu, XJ, Yu, L
Genetics and molecular research : GMR. 2011;(4):2449-56
Abstract
The cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 1A (also known as p21) is thought to be involved in tumor development by mediating cell cycle arrest through the inhibition of cyclin/CDK activity. To explore the relationship of Ser31Arg polymorphism in the p21 gene with the risk of developing lung cancer, we performed an overall and stratified meta-analysis based on ethnicity, lung cancer subtypes and source of controls, with six eligible studies (2366 cases and 3320 controls). No significant variation in lung cancer risk was detected in any of the genetic models in the overall, and the ethnicity-based and cancer subtype-based subgroup analyses. However, in the subgroup analysis based on source of controls, significant opposite associations were observed; a significantly increased lung cancer risk was observed in the hospital-based control subgroup, while a significantly decreased lung cancer risk was detected in the mixed-source control and unknown-source control subgroups. In summary, based on our meta-analysis, p21 Ser31Arg polymorphism does not appear to act as an independent lung cancer risk factor and is more likely to act together with other genetic and non-genetic factors in the development of lung cancer; this needs further investigation.