title: Genetic susceptibility and gastric cancer risk: the importance of meta-analyses as a statistical tool.
abstract: Gastric cancer (GC) is a complex disease and a worldwide health burden due to its high prevalence and poor prognosis. A deeper knowledge of the factors involved in the development and progression of GC could help to identify subpopulations at risk that therefore require surveillance or early treatment strategies. Current research is based on the study of genetic variants that confer a higher risk of GC and their interactions with environmental exposure. Recently, meta-analysis has emerged as an important statistical method involving pooling of data from individual association studies to increase statistical power and obtain more conclusive results. Given the importance of chronic inflammation in the process of gastric carcinogenesis, the present article reviews the most recent meta-analyses of the contribution of cytokine gene polymorphisms to GC risk.
authors.affiliation: Instituto Aragonés de Ciencias de la Salud, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Aragón, Spain; Ciber de enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (CIBERehd), Zaragoza, Spain. Electronic address: asgarcia@unizar.es.
authors.forename: María Asunción
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: García-González
authors.affiliation: Instituto Aragonés de Ciencias de la Salud, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Aragón, Spain; Ciber de enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (CIBERehd), Zaragoza, Spain; Servicio de Aparato Digestivo, Hospital Clínico Universitario, Zaragoza, Spain; Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain.
authors.forename: Angel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lanas
mesh_terms: D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D015201:Meta-Analysis as Topic; D012306:Risk; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics*
keywords: Cancer; Cáncer; Estómago; Meta-analysis; Meta-análisis; Polimorfismos; Polymorphism; Stomach