Common genetic variant on 14q13.3 contributes to thyroid cancer susceptibility: evidence based on 12 studies

Several genome-wide association studies on thyroid cancer (TC) have reported similar findings of a new susceptibility locus, 14q13.3. After that, a number of studies reported that rs944289 polymorphism at chromosome 14q13.3 has been implicated in TC risk. However, these studies have yielded inconsistent results. To investigate this inconsistency, we performed a meta-analysis of 12 studies involving a total of 7,598 TC cases, 53,613 controls, and 239 nuclear families for 14q13.3-rs944289 polymorphism to evaluate its effect on genetic susceptibility for TC. An overall random-effect per-allele OR of 1.30 (95 % CI 1.21-1.40, P < 10(-5)) was found for the polymorphism. Significant results were also observed for under dominant and recessive genetic models. In the subgroup analysis by ethnicity, we found similar significant results for both Caucasians (T allele: OR 1.29, 95 % CI 1.17-1.42, P < 10(-5)) and East Asians (T allele: OR 1.33, 95 % CI 1.18-1.49, P < 10(-5)). Further in stratified analyses according to study design and sample size, evidence of gene-disease association was also obtained. In addition, we found that rs944289 confers its risk, for both papillary thyroid carcinoma and follicular thyroid carcinoma when stratified by histological types of TC. Furthermore, our results on stratified analysis according to radiation exposure status showed an increased sporadic TC risk, while no associations were detected among radiation-related TCs for rs944289 polymorphism. Our result demonstrated that rs944289 polymorphism on 14q13.3 is a low penetrant risk factor for developing TC.