Lack of Association between the COMT rs4680 Polymorphism and Ovarian Cancer Risk: Evidence from a Meta-analysis of 3,940 Individuals

Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) is involved in estrogen metabolism and is vital to estrogen-inducedcarcinogenesis, including that of ovarian cancer. Although many recent epidemiologic studies have investigatedassociations between the COMT rs4680 polymorphism and ovarian cancer risk, the results remain inconclusive.We therefore performed a meta-analysis to derive a more precise estimate of associations. Systematic searches ofthe PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Wanfang, China National Knowledge Infrastructure,and Chinese Biomedicine databases were undertaken to retrieve eligible studies. Odds ratios (ORs) with theircorresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were pooled to assess the strength of the association. In total, 8case-control studies involving 1,293 cases and 2,647 controls were included in the meta-analysis. Overall, theresults showed no evidence of significant association between the COMT rs4680 polymorphism and ovariancancer risk in any of the assessed genetic models. Subgroup analyses by ethnicity also did not reveal anysignificant association in any genetic model (p>0.05). In conclusion, our findings suggest that the COMT rs4680polymorphism may not contribute to the risk of ovarian cancer.