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Association of IL-6 polymorphisms with hepatocellular carcinoma risk: evidences from a meta-analysis

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Tumor Biology

Abstract

The associations between IL-6 gene single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are controversial. We performed a meta-analysis to provide more credible evidence. We searched for relevant studies published up to 2013 by performing an efficient searching strategy. Odds ratios (OR) with 95 % confidence interval (95 % CI) was used to estimate the strength of the associations between IL-6 polymorphisms and HCC risk. We identified eight case–control studies involving 1,448 HCC cases and 3,160 controls. Our estimation specifically focused on two SNPs of the IL-6 gene, −174 G/C and −572 G/C. The combined results showed that association between IL-6-174 G/C polymorphism and risk of HCC was significant under additive model (CC vs. GG: OR 0.36; 95 % CI, 0.16, 0.85) and recessive model (GG+CG vs. CC: OR 2.82; 95 % CI 1.26, 6.28). However, the IL-6-572 G/C polymorphism was not associated with HCC risk. In conclusion, IL-6-174 G/C, but not −572 G/C polymorphism could be a candidate for susceptibility to HCC. However, the results should be cautiously interpreted due to the limited number of the included studies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Oncology, Changzheng Hospital, Second Military Medical University, 415 Fengyang Road, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China

    Ying Liu & Jie-jun Wang

  2. Department of Gastroenterology, Subei People’s Hospital of Yangzhou, Yangzhou, Jiangsu, China

    Su-jun Gao

  3. Department of Anesthesiology, Changzheng Hospital, Second Military Medical University, 415 Fengyang Road, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China

    Bo-xiang Du

  4. The Second Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University Nantong, Jiangsu, China

    Bo-xiang Du

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  1. Ying Liu
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Correspondence to Bo-xiang Du or Jie-jun Wang.

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Ying Liu and Sun-jun Gao contribute equally to the manuscript and are co-first authors.

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Liu, Y., Gao, Sj., Du, Bx. et al. Association of IL-6 polymorphisms with hepatocellular carcinoma risk: evidences from a meta-analysis. Tumor Biol. 35, 3551–3561 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-013-1469-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-013-1469-5

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