Tumor necrosis factor-alpha-308 gene promoter polymorphism associates with survival of cancer patients: A meta-analysis

Abstract

Background: Tumor necrosis factor-αlpha (TNF-α) is involved in cancer pathogenesis, and TNF-α-308G>A, a single-nucleotide polymorphism, is associated with cancer prognosis; however, different studies have reported inconsistent results. This meta-analysis aimed to determine the correlation between TNF-α-308G>A polymorphism and the survival of cancer patients. Methods: PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Wanfang database, VIP database, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure database were used to obtain articles on association between TNF-α-308G>A polymorphism and cancer survival, published until April 2018. A meta-analysis was carried out using Stata 12.0 software to determine the pooled hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). Furthermore, publication bias was assessed, and sensitivity analysis was performed to validate the analysis. Results: In total, 13 retrospective cohort studies including 2559 cancer patients were reviewed to estimate the association between TNF-α-308G>A polymorphism and overall survival (OS) of cancer patients. The pooled results suggested that within TNFa- 308G>A polymorphism, genotypes GA+AA/GG (HR=1.39, 95% CI: 0.90-2.14, P A polymorphism and OS among cancer patients (AA/GG, HR= 2.16, 95% CI: 1.36-3.43, P=.281, I2=21.5%). Conclusion: TNF-α-308G>A polymorphism affects the OS of cancer patients and is a potential therapeutic target for cancer.