Research article
Association between the NBS1 E185Q polymorphism and cancer risk: a meta-analysis
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* Corresponding authors: Meixia Lu lvmeixialv@yahoo.com.cn - Jiachun Lu jcLu@gzhmc.edu.cn
1 Department of Epidemiology and Statistics, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, PR China
2 Institute of Occupational Medicine and The MOE Key Lab of Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, PR China
3 The Institute for Chemical Carcinogenesis, Guangzhou Medical College, Guangzhou 510182, PR China
BMC Cancer 2009, 9:124 doi:10.1186/1471-2407-9-124
Published: 24 April 2009Abstract
Background
NBS1 is a key DNA repair protein in the homologous recombination repair pathway and a signal modifier in the intra-S phase checkpoint that plays important roles in maintaining genomic stability. The NBS1 8360G>C (Glu185Gln) is one of the most commonly studied polymorphisms of the gene for their association with risk of cancers, but the results are conflicting.
Methods
We performed a meta-analysis using 16 eligible case-control studies (including 17 data sets) with a total of 9,734 patients and 10,325 controls to summarize the data on the association between the NBS1 8360G>C (E185Q) polymorphism and cancer risk.
Results
Compared with the common 8360GG genotype, the carriers of variant genotypes (i.e., 8360 GC/CC) had a 1.06-fold elevated risk of cancer (95% CI = 1.00–1.12, P = 0.05) in a dominant genetic model as estimated in a fixed effect model. However, the association was not found in an additive genetic model (CC vs GG) (odds ratio, OR = 0.98, 95% CI = 0.85–1.13, P = 0.78) nor in a recessive genetic model (CC vs GC +GG) (OR = 0.94, 95% CI = 0.82–1.07, P = 0.36). The effect of the 8360G>C (E185Q) polymorphism was further evaluated in stratification analysis. It was demonstrated that the increased risk of cancer associated with 8360G>C variant genotypes was more pronounced in the Caucasians (OR = 1.07, 95% CI = 1.01–1.14, P = 0.03).
Conclusion
Our meta-analysis suggests that the NBS1 E185Q variant genotypes (8360 GC/CC) might be associated with an increased risk of cancer, especially in Caucasians.