The MDM2 rs937283 A > G variant significantly increases the risk of lung and gastric cancer in Chinese population

Currently, the MDM2 promoter rs937283 A > G variant that is able to alter MDM2 gene expression has been widely studied to explore the association of MDM2 with cancer risk. In this report, we investigate the association of MDM2 rs937283 A > G variant with risk of lung cancer (LC) and gastric cancer (GC) in a Chinese population of Hubei province, which was followed by a meta-analysis. The genotyping of rs937283 was performed by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism and confirmed by sequencing. The results of the present study showed that rs937283 was significantly associated with the risk of LC, and the factors of age, gender, smoking status and drinking status would affect such association. However, rs937283 was only associated with the risk of GC in male, smoking and drinking subgroups. The following meta-analysis demonstrated that rs937283 was associated with the overall cancer risk particularly in Chinese population, which reinforced our present finding. Moreover, the meta-analysis according to cancer types revealed that rs937283 was associated with retinoblastoma risk, but not squamous cell carcinoma risk. Collectively, the MDM2 rs937283 A > G variant may be a valuable risk factor or diagnostic biomarker for Chinese cancer patients.