Association between COX-2 rs2745557 polymorphism and prostate cancer risk: a systematic review and meta-analysis

A comprehensive search was conducted to identify all case-control studies of COX-2 rs2745557 polymorphism and PCa risk. We used odds ratios (ORs) to assess the strength of the association, and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) give a sense of the precision of the estimate. Statistical analyses were performed by Review Manage, version 5.0 and Stata 10.0.A total of 8 available studies were considered in the present meta-analysis, with 11356 patients and 11641 controls for rs2745557. When all groups were pooled, there was no evidence that rs2745557 had significant association with PCa under co-dominant, recessive, over-dominant, and allelic models. However, our analysis suggested that rs2745557 was associated with a lower PCa risk under dominant model in overall population (OR = 0.85, 95%CI = 0.74-0.97, P = 0.02). When stratifying for race, there was a significant association between rs2745557 polymorphism and lower PCa risk in dominant model comparison in the subgroup of Caucasians (OR = 0.86, 95%CI = 0.75-0.99, P = 0.04), but not in co-dominant, recessive, over-dominant and allelic comparisons.Based on our meta-analysis, COX-2 rs2745557 was associated with a lower PCa risk under dominant model in Caucasians.PCa is one of the most frequently diagnosed malignancies and a common cause of cancer mortality in men in the Western hemisphere [1,2]. Identifying risk factors for PCa is critically important to develop potential interventions and to expand our understanding of the biology of this disease. Despite the fact that the complex etiology of PCa remains obscure, various risk factors play an important role in PCa development such as advanced age, environmental variations, culture changes, and genetic variations. A strong association exists between states of chronic inflammation and cancer, and it is believed that mediators of inflammation may be responsible for this phenomenon [3]. Chronic inflammation may lead to tumorigenesis by damaging DNA through radical oxygen and nit