Are the FTO Gene Polymorphisms Associated with Colorectal Cancer? A Meta-analysis

Abstract

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is reported to be associated with some gene polymorphisms. However, the effect of the fat mass and obesity associated (FTO) gene on colorectal cancer is not yet clear. This meta-analysis aimed to investigate the association of the FTO gene polymorphism and colorectal cancer.

Methods: PubMed, Web of science, Scopus, and Embase were explored to identify the studies investigating the relationship between rs9939609 and rs17817449 polymorphisms of FTO gene and colorectal cancer, and the published papers from 2000 to 2019 were collected. This meta-analysis was conducted by using a random-effects model for the best estimation of the desired outcomes.

Results: In this study, 1528 studies were initially included and five eligible case-control studies including 13,460 cases and 22,578 controls were eligible for further analyses. No significant association was found between risk allele of FTO rs9939609 (OR = 0.98, 0.87-1.1) and rs17817449 (OR = 0.9, 0.79-1.03) polymorphisms and colorectal cancer risk. The subgroup analyses considering the source of the control group and race found no significant association between FTO polymorphisms and the risk of colon cancer.

Conclusions: This study indicated that rs9939609 and rs17817449 FTO gene polymorphisms are not associated with colorectal cancer risk. Individual studies involving different FTO polymorphisms are needed to further evaluation of the associations between the FTO gene and colon cancer.

Keywords: Colon cancer; Colorectal cancer; FTO; Polymorphism; The fat mass and obesity associated.