DNA repair gene XRCC3 Thr241Met polymorphisms and lung cancer risk: A meta-analysis

Background > The X-ray repair cross-complementing group 3 (XRCC3) is a highly suspected candidate gene for cancer susceptibility, and a large amount studies have examined the association of the rs861539 in XRCC3 (Thr241Met) with lung cancer risk in various populations. However, the results remain inconclusive. Methods > The electronic database of PubMed, Medline, Embase and CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure) were searched for case-control studies published up to December 05, 2013. A systematic review and meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the relationship between XRCC3 Thr241Met polymorphism and lung cancer risk. Data were extracted and pooled odds ratio (OR) with its 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated. Results > Total 21 studies, including 6880 lung cancer cases and 8329 controls, were available for meta-analysis. Overall, our results showed that the XRCC3 Thr241Met polymorphism was not associated with risk of lung cancer in all genetic contrast models (P > 0.05). Stratified analyses by ethnicity (Asians, Caucasians and mixed population) showed similar results. Additionally, no evidence of publication bias was observed by using the funnel plot. Conclusions > There is no clear evidence showing a significant correlation between XRCC3 Thr241Met polymorphism and lung cancer risk in total population and stratified analysis by ethnicity. However, studies assessing the gene-gene interactions should be considered to further estimate this gene variant in lung cancer risk.