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MTHFR C677T polymorphism contributes to the risk for gastric cancer

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Tumor Biology

Abstract

Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) has been demonstrated to be involved in carcinogenesis. Increasing individual studies have investigated the role of MTHFR C677T polymorphism in gastric cancer pathogenesis, but with inconsistent findings. The aim of this study was to clarify the potential association of the MTHFR C677T polymorphism with gastric cancer risk by pooling all available data from published case–control studies. We searched the PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Wanfang databases for all relevant publications to date. The pooled odds ratio (OR) with corresponding 95 % confidence interval (95 % CI) was calculated. Stratified analysis and sensitivity analysis were also carried out to estimate the strength of this association. A total of 25 case–control studies with 6,572 cases and 9,584 controls were retrieved. Overall, the ORs under five contrast models indicated that the MTHFR C677T variant was positively associated with gastric cancer risk (ORT vs. C = 1.21, 95 % CI 1.10–1.34, P OR < 0.001; ORTT vs. CC = 1.47, 95 % CI 1.22–1.76, P OR < 0.001; ORTC vs. CC = 1.20, 95 % CI 1.03–1.40, P OR = 0.022; ORTT + TC vs. CC = 1.27, 95 % CI 1.10–1.47, P OR = 0.001; ORTT vs. CC + TC = 1.29, 95 % CI 1.15–1.46, P OR < 0.001). Stratified analyses according to ethnicity and source of controls further confirmed the significant correlations. The current meta-analysis provides strong evidence that the MTHFR C677T polymorphism may be a risk factor for gastric cancer among Asians and Caucasians.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgical Oncology, The Eighty-First Hospital of People’s Liberation Army, Nanjing, 210002, Jiangsu Province, China

    Shushan Yan, Changjiang Hua, Tao Jiang, Bin Zhang, Zengcai Li, Lei Lu, Xianzhong Liu, Bingji Wang, Donghua Zhang, Rongsheng Zhang & Xuan Wang

  2. Department of Rheumatism, The First Affiliated Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 210029, China

    Donghua Xu

  3. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Weifang Maternal and Child Health Hospital, Weifang, 261000, China

    Pingping Wang

  4. Liver Transplantation Center of the First Affiliated Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 210029, Jiangsu Province, China

    Ping Wang & Beicheng Sun

  5. Clinical Research Centre, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 210029, Jiangsu Province, China

    Chengcheng Liu & Shaoheng He

  6. Allergy and Clinical Immunology Research Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Liaoning Medical College, Jinzhou, 121000, China

    Shaoheng He

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  1. Shushan Yan
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Correspondence to Beicheng Sun or Xuan Wang.

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Shushan Yan, Donghua Xu, Pingping Wang, Ping Wang, and Chengcheng Liu have contributed equally to this work.

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Yan, S., Xu, D., Wang, P. et al. MTHFR C677T polymorphism contributes to the risk for gastric cancer. Tumor Biol. 35, 2123–2132 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-013-1282-1

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