The relationship between survival in gastric cancer patients and the status of microsatellite instability (MSI) has not yet been established. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to obtain integrated and more precise data for the value of MSI as a prognostic marker in gastric cancer.

Many studies have evaluated the association between cyclin D1 (CCND1) G870A polymorphism and cervical cancer susceptibility. However, these studies showed inconsistent results. The aim of this study was to derive a more precise estimation of this association. We searched PubMed and Embase for related studies that had been published in English, and ten case-control studies with a total of 2,864 cases and 3,898 controls were finally identified to be eligible studies in the meta-analysis. The association was assessed by summarizing the odds ratios (ORs) with the corresponding 95 % confidence intervals (CIs). Overall, there was no significant association between cyclin D1 (CCND1) G870A polymorphism and cervical cancer risk (for the allele model A vs. G: OR = 1.02, 95 % CI 0.88-1.19, p = 0.76; for the co-dominant model AA vs. GG: OR = 1.03, 95 % CI 0.75-1.41, p = 0.85; for the dominant model AA + GA vs. GG: OR = 1.00, 95 % CI 0.78-1.28, p = 0.99; for the recessive comparison AA vs. GA + GG: OR = 1.06, 95 % CI 0.85-1.32, p = 0.62). In subgroup analysis by ethnicity, no significant difference was found in both Asians and Caucasians. In summary, the present meta-analysis provides evidence that genotypes for the cyclin D1 (CCND1) G870A polymorphism may be not associated with genetic susceptibility of cervical cancer.

Gains of 3q26 chromosome region, where the human telomerase RNA gene (hTERC) is located, have been previously documented in cervical carcinomas. However, published data on this subject are inconclusive. Therefore, we performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the diagnostic value of hTERC in high-grade cervical lesions and invasive cancer. We searched all the eligible studies through PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library database without language limitation. Studies were assessed for quality using quality assessment of diagnostic accuracy studies (QUADAS). Positive likelihood ratio (PLR) and negative likelihood ratio (NLR) were pooled separately and compared with overall accuracy measures of diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) and symmetric summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC). The PLR and NLR and their 95 % confidence interval (CI) were calculated using a fixed effects model according to the Mantel-Haensed method and random effects model based on the work of Der Simonian and laird, respectively. A total of 12 studies were included for the analysis. The pooled sensitivity was 0.81 (95 % CI, 0.80-0.82). The pooled specificity was 0.83 (95 % CI, 0.82-0.84). The DOR estimate was performed, and the result was 17.37. Our meta-analysis showed that the detection of genomic amplification of hTERC is a noninvasive and effective approach for high-grade cervical lesions and invasive cancer.

We sought to reassess the association of PLCE1 rs2274223 and susceptibility to esophageal cancer (EC) through a meta-analysis of published case-control studies. Using the PubMed and Embase, we identified nine articles including fourteen case-control studies (15,225 cases and 23,620 controls). ORs and 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) of GG vs. AA, GG + GA vs. AA, GG vs. GA + AA, G vs. A, and AG vs. AA genetic models were estimated for each study. All of the genetic models indicated a statistically significant positive association with EC risk. The association appeared most pronounced for carriers of GG genotype (GG vs. AA: OR, 1.35; 95 % CI, 1.17 to 1.57), and weakest for individuals carrying GA genotype (GA vs. AA: OR, 1.13; 95 % CI, 1.05 to 1.23). Stratification analyses showed similar results in the population of Asians and in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). This meta-analysis provides strong statistical evidence for an elevated risk of EC associated with PLCE1 rs2274223. The association remains significant in Asian population and ESCC. Further investigations are warranted to validate these findings.

Xeroderma pigmentosum complementation group C gene (XPC) is a key member of nucleotide excision repair pathway and plays an important role in human DNA repair system. It is reported that several common polymorphisms of XPC are associated with susceptibility to lung cancer. However, the conclusion is still elusive.

Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) is an inducible enzyme converting arachidonic acid to prostaglandins and playing important roles in inflammatory diseases as well as tumor development. Previous studies investigating the association between COX-2 polymorphisms and colorectal cancer (CRC) risk reported conflicting results. We performed a meta-analysis of all available studies to explore this association.

Our current meta-analysis is aimed to investigate the relationships between fragile histidine triad (FHIT) protein expression and prognosis in gastric cancer patients. We searched MEDLINE (1966 ~ 2013), the Cochrane Library Database (Issue 12, 2013), EMBASE (1980 ~ 2013), CINAHL (1982 ~ 2013), Web of Science (1945 ~ 2013), and the Chinese Biomedical Database (CBM) (1982 ~ 2013) without any language restrictions. The meta-analysis was conducted using the STATA 12.0 software. Crude hazard ratios (HR) with its 95 % confidence interval (95 % CI) were calculated. Eight clinical cohort studies with a total of 1,361 gastric cancer patients were involved in our meta-analysis. Our results revealed that FHIT-negative patients exhibited a shorter overall survival (OS) time than FHIT-positive patients (HR = 1.23, 95 % CI = 1.01 ~ 1.44, P < 0.001). Ethnicity-stratified analysis demonstrated that FHIT-negative patients have significantly poorer prognosis than FHIT-positive patients among both Caucasians and Asians (all P < 0.05). In conclusion, our meta-analysis provides evidences that negative expression of FHIT protein may be correlated with poor prognosis in patients with gastric cancer. Thus, FHIT expression level may be utilized as an independent prognostic marker for gastric cancer.

This meta-analysis of published cohort studies was conducted to evaluate how closely the promoter methylation of the vimentin gene is correlated with the pathogenesis of colorectal carcinogenesis (CRC). The Web of Science (1945 ~ 2013), Cochrane Library Database (issue 12, 2013), PubMed (1966 ~ 2013), EMBASE (1980 ~ 2013), CINAHL (1982 ~ 2013), and Chinese Biomedical Database (CBM) (1982 ~ 2013) were searched without language restrictions. Meta-analyses were conducted using Stata software (Version 12.0, Stata Corporation, College Station, TX, USA). Odds ratios (ORs) and 95 % confidence intervals (95 %CI) were calculated. Seven clinical cohort studies with a total of 467 CRC subjects met our inclusion criteria. Our meta-analysis results demonstrated that the frequency of vimentin promoter methylation in cancer tissues was significantly higher than in normal and benign tissues (cancer tissues vs. normal tissues: OR = 32.41, 95 %CI = 21.04 ~ 49.93, P < 0.001; cancer tissues vs. benign tissues: OR = 1.60, 95 %CI 1.05 ~ 2.42, P = 0.028). Ethnicity-stratified analysis indicated that the frequency of aberrant vimentin promoter methylation was correlated with the pathogenesis of CRC in both Asians and Caucasians. The findings of our meta-analysis confirm that vimentin methylation may play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of CRC.

Osteosarcoma has become a health threat for adolescents and young adults. To identify the genetic risk factor for the malignancy is in urgent need. Several studies have investigated the role of CD 152 polymorphisms in osteosarcoma in a sample of Chinese population. However, the association is poorly defined due to lack of a sufficiently large sample. In this study, we performed a meta-analysis of all CD 152 polymorphisms that had been implicated in osteosarcoma to examine the association. We searched the electronic MEDLINE database until December 31, 2013, to identify the studies regarding the association between CD 152 polymorphisms and osteosarcoma. Inclusion criteria were followed in the selection of eligible study. The genotypic and allelic data were collected from all studies included to evaluate the risk of osteosarcoma (odds ratio, OR). We found statistically significant evidence of the studied CD 152 polymorphisms and increased risk of osteosarcoma in homozygous (OR = 1.79, 95 % CI = 1.40-2.29, P = 0.958), recessive (OR = 1.77, 95 % CI = 1.40-2.25, P = 0.899), and allele model (OR = 1.21, 95 % CI = 1.09-1.34, P = 1.000). This increased risk was also revealed in single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) +49G>A and SNP 326G>A. Our meta-analysis indicates that there may be an association between CD 152 polymorphisms and risk of osteosarcoma in Chinese population. Further validation of the observation is necessary.

The relationship between the GSTP1 A313G and GSTM1 null/present polymorphisms and the treatment response (TR) of platinum-based chemotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients have been extensively investigated by many studies, but the results were inconsistent and inconclusive. The aim of this meta-analysis was to further explore the predictive value of the GSTP1 and GSTM1 polymorphisms by collecting currently available evidence. Relevant studies were searched in PubMed, Embase, and CNKI. Inclusion criteria were NSCLC patients receiving platinum-based treatment, evaluated GSTP1 A313G or GSTM1 null/present polymorphisms, and TR. Odds ratio (OR) with 95 % confidence interval (CI) was calculated to assess the strength of the associations. Subgroup analysis by race was also conducted to explore the source of heterogeneity. A total of nine studies including 961 NSCLC patients were qualified for analysis. We found that GSTM1 null/present but not GSTP1 A313G polymorphism was associated with platinum-based TR (for GSTM1, null vs present: OR = 1.77, 95% CI = 1.19-2.62). When subgroup analysis by race was done, both GSTP1 and GSTM1 polymorphisms were significantly associated with TR in East-Asian patients, but not in Caucasians. In addition, the heterogeneity disappeared in Asian and Caucasian patients when subgroup analysis by race was done. Our study suggested that the GSTP1 A313G and GSTM1 null/present polymorphisms could predict the treatment response of the platinum-based chemotherapy in NSCLC patients, especially in East-Asian patients.

Single-nucleotide polymorphisms of rs965513 (9q22.33) and rs944289 (14q13.3) may be involved in the pathogenesis of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). But, relevant genetic studies reported different results. The aim of this meta-analysis was to derive a more precise assessment of the association of rs965513/rs944289 polymorphism with PTC risk. Relevant studies were identified using PubMed, ISI Web of knowledge, Medline, Embase, Google Scholar Search database, SinoMed (Chinese), CNKI (Chinese), GeNii (Japanese) and ICHUSHI (Japanese) (update to December, 2013). A total of eight case-control studies with 52,363 subjects for rs965513 and 51,120 subjects for rs944289 were included. The results showed significant associations of rs965513/rs944289 with PTC risk existed in overall population (for rs965513, A vs. G: OR 1.71 (1.56-1.86); for rs944289, T vs. C: OR 1.29 (1.23-1.37)). Subgroup analysis by ethnicity showed that there were significant associations in Asians (for rs965513, A vs. G: OR 1.48 (1.27-1.73); for rs944289, T vs. C: OR 1.35 (1.18-1.55)), in Europeans (for rs965513, A vs. G: OR 1.74 (1.61-1.88); for rs944289, T vs. C: OR 1.24 (1.14-1.34)), and in Americans (for rs965513, A vs. G: OR 2.00 (1.76-2.27); for rs944289, T vs. C: OR 1.29 (1.14-1.47)). In conclusion, Rs965513 [A] and rs944289 [T] are risk factors of PTC. Effect estimate for rs965513 polymorphism is higher in Americans than in Asians.

The associations between Interleukin-10 (IL-10) polymorphisms and breast cancer (BC) risk are inconsistent. This study was aimed to evaluate the relationship between IL-10 polymorphisms (rs1800896, rs1800871, and rs1800872) and BC risk.

The relationship between common haplotype-tagging polymorphisms (rs266729 [11365C>G], rs822395 [-4034A>C], rs822396 [-3964A>G], rs2241766 [45T>G], and rs1501299 [276G>T]) in the ADIPOQ gene and cancer risk has been investigated in different ethnic groups; however, these studies have yielded contradictory results. With this in mind, this meta-analysis was performed in an attempt to draw a more precise conclusion regarding the association between ADIPOQ polymorphisms and cancer risk.

Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) is an essential enzyme for DNA biosynthesis and the epigenetic process of DNA methylation. MTHFR gene polymorphisms have been implicated as risk factors for several types of cancers. However, reports on the association of MTHFR polymorphisms with ovarian cancers are inconclusive. The aim of this study is to summarize on the reported data and meta-analytically investigate the relationship between the MTHFR C677T and A1298C polymorphism and the risk of ovarian cancer.

Divergent findings regarding the prognostic value of CpG island methylator phenotype (CIMP) in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients exist in current literature. We aim to review data from published studies in order to examine the association between CIMP and CRC prognosis.

We performed this meta-analysis study to evaluate the concordance and discordance between immunohistochemistry (IHC) and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) in detecting HER2 alteration in human breast cancer.

The PTEN/PI3K/Akt signaling pathway, a key player in mediating apoptosis, metabolism, cell proliferation, and cell growth, is frequently dysregulated in many cancers. However, the pathway's prognostic impact in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is still inconsistent. We performed a meta-analysis based on individual study outcomes to more precisely evaluate its clinical significance in EOC patients. Methods. We searched all potentially relevant studies published between January 1, 1990, and March 1, 2013, that assessed the association between PTEN, PI3K, and Akt status and survival in EOC. Meta-analysis was performed using a fixed-effect or random-effects model as appropriate. We investigated the possibility of publication bias through a funnel plot and identified the heterogeneity by I(2) statistics. Results. Eleven eligible studies were analyzed for PTEN, 5 for PI3K, and 11 for pAkt. High PI3K and pAkt expression was associated with poor overall survival (OS; pooled adjusted hazard ratio [HR] = 1.44, 95% CI, 1.08-1.91 for PI3K; HR = 1.60, 95% CI, 1.26-2.04 for pAkt). In addition, both the meta-analyses of univariate and multivariate estimates showed that only high pAkt expression was significantly associated with poor progression-free survival (PFS; pooled unadjusted HR = 1.24, 95% CI, 1.10-1.39; pooled adjusted HR = 1.65, 95% CI, 1.07-2.55). Conclusion. Published studies suggest that high pAkt expression is significantly associated with poor OS and PFS in EOC patients, but currently available evidence is insufficient to recommend that PTEN, PI3K, or Akt be used as prognostic predictors in EOC in clinical practice.

The association between the

A series of studies have explored the role of cytosolic serine hydroxymethyltransferase (SHMT1) C1420T polymorphism in cancer risk, but their results were conflicting rather than conclusive. To derive a more precise estimation of the association between C1420T and cancer risk, the present meta-analysis of 28 available studies with 15,121 cases and 18,023 controls was conducted. The results revealed that there was no significant association between the polymorphism and cancer risk overall. In stratified analysis by cancer type (breast cancer, gastrointestinal cancer, leukemia, lymphoma, and others), the results showed that 1420T allele was associated with decreased risk in leukemia (CT vs. CC: OR= 0.825, 95% CI =0.704-0.966; and CT+TT vs. CC: OR= 0.838, 95% CI = 0.722-0.973), but the same results were not present for other cancer types. When subgroup analysis was performed by source of control (population-based [PB] and hospital-based [HB]), a borderline inverse association was observed for the HB subgroup (CT vs. CC: OR= 0.917, 95% CI = 0.857-0.982) but not for the PB subgroup. Stratifying by geographic area (America, Asia and Europe), significant inverse association was only found in Asia subgroup (CT vs. CC: OR= 0.674, 95% CI = 0.522-0.870). In summary, the findings suggest that SHMT1 C1420T polymorphism is not associated with overall cancer development, but might decrease cancer susceptibility of Asians as well as reduce leukemia risk. Large well-designed epidemiological studies will be necessary to validate the risk identified in the current meta-analysis.

To explore the correlation between polymorphism of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) -765G>C and susceptibility to colorectal cancer.