The association between CD14-260C/T polymorphism and malignant tumor risk: a meta-analysis of 5,603 participants

The CD14-260C/T polymorphism has been implicated to be in association with malignant tumor. However, a number of studies have reported inconclusive results. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship of CD14-260C/T polymorphism and malignant tumor risk by meta-analysis. A search was performed in PubMed, Embase, the Chinese Journals Full-text Database (CNKI), and Wanfang databases up to August 2013. Odds ratio (OR) and 95 % confidence interval (95 % CI) were used to assess the association. Statistical analysis was calculated by STATA 11.0 software. The polymorphism was identified from 11 articles (12 case-control studies), involving 2,660 cases and 2,943 controls. Overall, no significant association between CD14-260C/T polymorphism and malignant tumor risk was found in the dominant model (TT + TC vs. CC: OR = 0.86, 95 % CI = 0.67-1.11). In the subgroup analysis by malignant tumor types, we found that the heterozygote model (TC vs. CC) might reduce the risk of malignant tumor, especially hematological malignance and prostate cancer (OR = 0.67, 95 % CI = 0.47-0.95), but not associated with gastrointestinal cancer susceptibility. In the subgroup analysis by ethnicity, no significant associations were found among different ethnicities. The study suggested that CD14-260C/T polymorphism might be a protective factor for hematological malignance and prostate tumor susceptibility but not an independent risk factor for gastrointestinal cancer susceptibility. To further evaluate the association between the polymorphism and malignant tumor susceptibility, more studies involving thousands of patients are required.