Association of Interleukin-16 rs4778889 T>C Gene Polymorphism with Cancer Risk: a Meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Rs4778889 T>C is one of the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in interleukin-16 (IL-16). As a growth factor, IL-16 might play a significant impact on cancer formation. Several studies have investigated the relationship between IL-16 rs4778889 T>C gene polymorphisms and cancer risk, but the results are contradictory. We conducted a meta-analysis on the association between IL-16 rs4778889 T>C gene polymorphism and cancer risk. METHODS: Twelve case–control studies with 3066 cases and 4433 controls from Web of Science, PubMed, and Embase databases were included. The data was analyzed using the STATA software and the combined odds ratio (ORs) and the corresponding 95% confidence interval (CIs) were used to identify the correlation strength. RESULTS: Our results show that no significant associations were observed between the IL-16 rs4778889 T>C gene polymorphisms and cancer risk in all genetic models (C vs. T: OR=1.06, 95% CI: 0.90–1.26, Ph<0.001; CC vs. TT: OR=1.07, 95% CI: 0.71–1.62, Ph<0.001; CT vs. TT: OR=1.07, 95% CI: 0.91–1.26, Ph=0.002; CC+CT vs. TT: OR=1.08, 95% CI: 0.90–1.30, Ph<0.001; CC vs. CT+TT: OR=1.04, 95% CI: 0.73–1.50, Ph=0.001). Subgroup and sensitivity analyses also were performed. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this meta-analysis indicate that there are no significant associations between IL-16 rs4778889 T>C gene polymorphisms and cancer risk. To verify these results, further studies with larger sample size and multiracial populations are needful. Keywords: IL-16, polymorphisms, cancer, meta-analysis