Association between vascular endothelial growth factor rs699947 polymorphism and the risk of three major urologic neoplasms (bladder cancer, prostate cancer, and renal cell carcinoma): A meta-analysis involving 11,204 subjects

Abstract

Background: The relationship between vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) gene variant rs699947 polymorphism and urologic neoplasms risk was studied extensively in recent years. The VEGF gene plays a key role in angiogenesis of urologic neoplasms, but some conclusions are still inconclusive. The aim of this study was to determine whether this polymorphism is a risk factor for susceptibility to urologic neoplasms by conducting a meta-analysis.

Methods: We performed a meta-analysis of 15 different publications from the PubMed, Embase and Medline databases, to better assess the association between VEGF rs699947 polymorphism and urologic neoplasms risk. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were evaluated using random or fixed effects models.

Results: By pooling all eligible studies, we found that the VEGF rs699947 polymorphism was not associated with overall urologic neoplasms. However, subgroup analysis based on cancer types demonstrated that significantly increased association was found between VEGF rs699947 polymorphism and the risk of bladder cancer (BCa) under heterozygous genetic model (OR = 1.48, 95%CI = 1.17-1.89). And rs699947 polymorphism was also identified an increased risk of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) under dominant, recessive, homozygous, heterozygous and allelic contrast genetic models, while no association was observed in prostate cancer (PCa). In addition, in subgroup analysis by ethnicity, we found rs699947 polymorphism was associated with Asian population under dominant, homozygous, heterozygous and allelic contrast genetic models. No evidence of publication bias was found (Begg's test, P = 0.855; Egger's test, P = 0.590).

Conclusions: In summary, our study showed evidence that the VEGF rs699947 polymorphism was obviously associated with an increased risk of bladder cancer and renal cell carcinoma, particularly in Asian population, while no significant association was observed in overall urologic neoplasms. Future studies with larger sample sizes are warranted to further evaluate these associations in more details.

Keywords: Meta-analysis; Polymorphism; Urologic neoplasms; Vascular endothelial growth factors.