title: Association between p16 Promoter Methylation and Thyroid Cancer Risk: A Meta-analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The aim of the meta-analysis was to derive a more precise assessment of the association between p16 promoter methylation and thyroid cancer risk.
  
  
  METHODS
  The PubMed, Web of Science databases and Chinese CNKI were searched for relevant articles. Ultimately, seventeen case-control studies were included with a total of 804 thyroid cancer cases and 487 controls analysis by R Software (R version 3.1.2) including meta. Crude odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals were calculated using the random-effects model which were used to assess the strength of relationship between p16 methylation and lung carcinogenesis. Funnel plots were carried out to evaluate publication bias.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The meta-analysis results showed that the frequency of p16 promoter methylation in cancer tissue/blood was significantly higher than that normal tissue/ blood (OR=5.46, 95%CI 3.12-9.55, P<0.0001) by random effects model with small heterogeneity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Thus, p16 promoter methylation may be associated with thyroid cancer risk.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Molecular Genetics of Aging and Tumor, Faculty of Medicing, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, Yunnan, China E-mail : zhjihong2000@126.com.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Sheng-Fu
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Fei-Fei
authors.initials: FF
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Ji-Hong
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D016022:Case-Control Studies; D019175:DNA Methylation; D019942:Genes, p16; D006801:Humans; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic / Q000235:genetics*; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*