DNA repair gene XRCC3 Thr241Met polymorphisms and lung cancer risk: a meta-analysis

The X-ray repair cross-complementing group 3 (XRCC3) is a highly suspected candidate gene for cancer susceptibility, and a large amount studies have examined the association of the rs861539 in XRCC3 (Thr241Met) with lung cancer risk in various populations. However, the results remain inconclusive.

The electronic database of PubMed, Medline, Embase and CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure) were searched for case-control studies published up to December 05, 2013. A systematic review and meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the relationship between XRCC3 Thr241Met polymorphism and lung cancer risk. Data were extracted and pooled odds ratio (OR) with its 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated.

Total 21 studies, including 6880 lung cancer cases and 8329 controls, were available for meta-analysis. Overall, our results showed that the XRCC3 Thr241Met polymorphism was not associated with risk of lung cancer in all genetic contrast models (P>0.05). Stratified analyses by ethnicity (Asians, Caucasians and mixed population) showed similar results. Additionally, no evidence of publication bias was observed by using the funnel plot.

There is no clear evidence showing a significant correlation between XRCC3 Thr241Met polymorphism and lung cancer risk in total population and stratified analysis by ethnicity. However, studies assessing the gene-gene interactions should be considered to further estimate this gene variant in lung cancer risk.