Methylenetetrahydrofolate Reductase Polymorphisms and Susceptibility to Esophageal Cancer in Chinese Population: Meta-analysis

Objective To study the relationship between Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase polymorphisms and susceptibility to esophageal cancer in Chinese populations by Meta-analysis. Methods Computer literature searching was carried out in CBM and PubMed database to collect the articles of the case-control studies on association between MTHFR polymorphism and susceptibility to esophageal cancer,also performed searching based on www.baidu.com and www.google.cn.Odds ratio was employed to evaluate the susceptibility to esophageal cancer and MTHFR status.Heterogeneity was checked by chi-square test.Publication bias was assessed by using a funnel plot and Egger's test. Results Ten papers were selected.Meta-analysis found that OR (95%CI) for polymorphisms of the MTHFRC677T and MTHFRA1298C were 1.97 (1.69，2.30) and 0.84 (0.66,1.08) respectively.Stratification analysis showed that OR for the MTHFRC677T and esophageal cancer among the smoke group was 2.57 (95%CI:1.73~3.80); OR for the MTHFRC677T and esophageal cancer among the non-smoke group was 1.33 (95%CI:0.94~1.88). Conclusion Polymorphisms of MTHFRC677T had statistically significant association between the MTHFR variants and susceptibility to esophageal cancer，MTHFRA1298C and esophageal cancer failed to show statistically significant association.The MTHFRC677T genotype with smoking might be associated with the increased risk of esophageal cancer.