Objective: Tumor necrosis factor-β (TNF-β) plays important roles in mediating cancer development. Many studies have argued possible associations of TNF-β +252 A>G polymorphism with different cancers. However, association between this most frequently studied polymorphism and susceptibility to cancer still remains controversial and ambiguous. The aim of this study is to determine the relationship of TNF-β +252 A>G polymorphism with cancer through meta-analysis.
Methods: Electronic searches of several databases were conducted for all publications on the associations between this variant and cancer through October 2011. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95 % confidence intervals (95 % CIs) were used to access the strength of this association in random-effect model.
Results: Thirty-three studies with 14,435 cancer patients and 10,583 healthy controls were included. In this meta-analysis, we detected statistically significant connections between this polymorphism and cancer risks [GG + GA vs. AA: OR = 1.24, 95 % CI = 1.02-1.51; GG vs. AA: OR = 1.43, 95 % CI = 1.05-1.95; G vs. A: OR = 1.28, 95 % CI = 1.28 (1.09-1.50)] in the overall ethnic population. Meanwhile, we detected significant associations in Asian population (GG + GA vs. AA), other population (GG vs. GA + AA), and Caucasian population (GG vs. AA, G vs. A) with the OR values being 1.21 (1.04-1.40), 1.64 (1.35-1.99), 1.65 (1.02, 2.65), and 1.39 (1.09-1.75), respectively.
Conclusions: TNF-β +252 A>G polymorphism is positively associated with susceptibility to cancer. However, this study also suggests that more studies should be conducted to further confirm the associations between this variant and specific types of cancers.