Association of XRCC1 Arg399Gln Polymorphism with Colorectal Cancer Risk: A HuGE Meta Analysis of 35 Studies

Background: Non-synonymous polymorphisms in XRCC1 hase been shown to reduce effectiveness of DNArepair and be associated with risk of certain cancers. In this study we aimed to clarify any association betweenXRCC1 Arg399Gln and colorectal cancer (CRC) risk by performing a meta-analysis of published case-controlstudies. Materials and
Methods: PubMed and Google Scholar were searched to explore the association betweenXRCC1 and CRC. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated to estimate theassociation strength. Publication bias was assessed by Egger’s and Begg’s tests.
Results: Up to January 2015, 35case control studies involving 9,114 CRC cases and 13,948 controls were included in the present meta-analysis.The results showed that the Arg399Gln polymorphism only under an allele genetic model was associated withCRC risk (A vs. G: OR 0.128, 95% CI 0.119-0.138, p<0.001). Also, this meta-analysis suggested that the XRCC1Arg399Gln polymorphism might associated with susceptibility to CRC in Asians (A vs G: OR 0.124, 95% CI0.112-0.138, p<0.001) and Caucasian (A vs G: OR 0.132, 95% CI 0.119-0.146, p<0.001) only under an allele geneticmodel.
Conclusions: This meta-analysis confirms the association between XRCC1 Arg399Gln polymorphismand CRC risk and suggests that the heterogeneity is not strongly modified by ethnicity and deviation from theHardy-Weinberg equilibrium.