ABSTRACT
Background
Inflammatory and inducible chemokines are the hallmarks of malignancy. Monocyte chemo-attractant protein-1 (MCP-1) is a crucial chemokine implicated in infection and inflammation. Methods: We performed an updated meta-analysis of thirty independent case-control studies with 6,777 cancer cases and 7,840 controls to determine if the MCP-1 gene rs1024611 A > G variant is associated with the risk of cancer. Results: The G allele carriers of rs1024611 in the MCP-1 gene might have a null association with cancer risk in overall comparison. In a subgroup analysis by ethnicity, we identified a marked association between the MCP-1 G allele rs1024611 polymorphism and cancer risk in the Caucasian populations (GG vs. AA: OR = 1.72, 95% CI, 1.12–2.64, P = .013, and GG vs. AG/AA: OR = 1.82, 95% CI, 1.19–2.78, P = .006). The potential bias in literature selection was witnessed in this meta-analysis (G vs. A: P Begg’s = 0.187, PEgger’s = 0.049; and GG/GA vs. AA: P Begg’s = 0.069, PEgger’s = 0.024). The adjusted ORs and CIs of the nonparametric “trim-and-fill” method demonstrated the reliability of these findings. The outcome of heterogeneity analysis indicated that heterogeneity might be due to small sample sizes (<1000 subjects), cancer types (bladder cancer, other cancers), ethnicity (Asians), and population-based studies. However, the sensitivity analysis validated the reliability of the findings. Conclusion: In conclusion, this updated meta-analysis showed that the G carrier of the MCP-1 gene rs1024611 is associated with susceptibility to cancer in Caucasian.
Acknowledgments
We thank Dr. Yan Liu (Genesky Biotechnologies Inc., Shanghai, China) for technical support.
Disclosure of potential conflicts of interests
The authors declare that they have no potential financial conflicts of interest.
Supplementary material
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