Association of Polymorphisms with Breast Cancer Risk: A Meta-Analysis of Case-Control Studies †.

Reports on the association of polymorphisms with breast cancer (BC) have been conflicting, inconsistent, inconclusive, and controversial. PubMed, EMBASE, and Google Scholar were used to identify studies on polymorphisms and BC risk. Data were extracted independently, and of the initial 3043 studies, 39 case-control studies were eligible for inclusion in the meta-analysis. Information from these studies was extracted, and the overall associations of three polymorphisms ( 29>T/C, -509 C/T, and ) with BC risk were analyzed using overall allele, homozygous, heterozygous, recessive, and dominant models. None of the three polymorphisms studied had a significant influence on the development of BC. However, stratified analysis revealed a positive correlation between the 29T>C polymorphism and BC risk according to a heterozygous model of the Asian population (odds ratio (OR) = 1.115, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.006-1.237, = 0.039). Interestingly, this polymorphism was associated with lower odds of BC according to a heterozygous model of the Middle Eastern population (OR = 0.602, 95% CI = 0.375-0.966, = 0.035). Thus, our analysis of large datasets indicates that the 29T>C polymorphism is significantly associated with BC risk in the Asian population. In contrast, the and polymorphisms failed to show an association with BC.