title: Association between vascular endothelial growth factor +936C/T polymorphism and breast cancer risk: a meta-analysis of 18 case-control studies.
abstract: Important in angiogenesis, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) acts as a biomarker in the growth of and prognosis for breast cancer. Evidence suggests that single nucleotide polymorphisms of VEGF such as +936C/T (rs3025039) effects VEGF levels; however, current studies on the association between +936C/T and breast cancer risk are inconsistent. This meta-analysis was conducted to reach a more precise conclusion about this association. PubMed was searched for case-control studies on the association between +936C/T levels and breast cancer risk. The quality of each study was scoring in term of some important criteria. Pooled odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to assess the strength of this association. Subgroup analysis stratified by ethnicity and quality score was also conducted. Eighteen studies with 10,694 cases and 11,199 controls in accord with the selection criteria were included in our meta-analysis. When all eligible studies were pooled, our meta-analysis showed that there was no significant association between +936C/T and breast cancer risk in the all ethnic group; however, in the subgroup analysis, we found that +936C/T was associated with reduced breast cancer risk in the Asian population. When stratified by the quality score, no significant association was found between +936C/T and breast cancer risk either in studies scored <8 or studies scored >7. Our findings suggested that +936C/T is not associated with breast cancer risk but may reduce the risk in the Asian population.
authors.affiliation: First School of Clinical Medicine, Southern Medical University 1838 North Guangzhou Avenue, Guangzhou 510515, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Danhui
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: First School of Clinical Medicine, Southern Medical University 1838 North Guangzhou Avenue, Guangzhou 510515, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Jianhua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Central Hospital of Longhua New District Shenzhen 518110, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Zhenya
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: First School of Clinical Medicine, Southern Medical University 1838 North Guangzhou Avenue, Guangzhou 510515, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Senlin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Laboratory Medicine Center, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University Guangzhou, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Yuzhao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: First School of Clinical Medicine, Southern Medical University 1838 North Guangzhou Avenue, Guangzhou 510515, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Lingling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Laboratory Medicine Center, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University Guangzhou, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zeng
keywords: VEGF +936C/T polymorphism; breast cancer risk; meta-analysis