The Association Between Mir-146a Polymorphism And Cancer Susceptibility: A Meta-Analysis

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of new non-coding RNA, which play important roles in the pathogenesis of tumor. Rs2910164 in miR-146a is suggested to be associated with the risk of suffering cancer. The present study analyzes the association between the polymorphism of miR-146a rs2910164 and cancer susceptibility through the meta-analysis. We searched the correlative article from PubMed and Embase databases. According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, we screened all the articles. The strength of associations between microRNA polymorphism and cancer risk were estimated by computing the odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals. All analyses were performed using the Stata software. There are 34 datasets included in the analysis. The results showed that no association was found between the rs2910164 in miR-146a and the risks of overall cancer. A stratified analysis, on the basis of ethnicity for population characteristic, showed that Asians carrying variant genotypes of rs2910164 in miR-146a have lower danger to be attacked by cancer (GC vs. GG: OR = 0.90 95% CI = 0.83-0.96, P = 0.003; CC vs. GG: OR = 0.83, 95% CI = 0.70-1.00, P = 0.047; CC+GC vs. GG: OR = 0.89, 95% CI = 0.78-0.99, P = 0.032). In contrast, Caucasians have higher risk (CC vs. GG: OR = 1.17, 95% CI = 1.01-1.35, P = 0.038; C vs. G: OR = 1.06, 95% CI = 1.01-1.12, P = 0.034). In the subgroup analysis of tumor type, all the genetic model suggested that rs2910164 contribute to reduce the risk of cervical squamous cell carcinoma (GC vs. GG: OR = 0.72, 95% CI = 0.55-0.95, P = 0.022; CC vs. GG: OR = 0.50, 95% CI = 0.37-0.68, P < 0.001; CC+GC vs. GG: OR = 0.63, 95% CI = 0.49-0.82, P = 0.001; CC vs. GG+GC: OR = 0.65, 95% CI = 0.52-0.82, P < 0.001; C vs. G: OR = 0.72, 95% CI = 0.62-0.84, P < 0.001). Rs2910164 CC genotype is the protection factor of hepatocellular carcinoma (CC vs. GG: OR = 0.71, 95% CI = 0.55-0.92, P = 0.010) and prostatic carcinoma (CC vs. GG: OR = 0.57, 95% CI = 0.35-0.90, P = 0.016; C vs. G: OR = 0.80, 95% CI = 0.66-0.97, P = 0.024). The present study suggests that rs2910164 polymorphism in miR-146a may be related to the susceptibility of cancer.