Effect of ERCC1 polymorphisms on the response to platinum-based chemotherapy: A systematic review and meta-analysis based on Asian population

BACKGROUND: Platinum-based chemotherapy is one of the most common treatments for many cancers; however, the effect of chemotherapy varies from individual to individual. Excision repair cross complementation group 1 (ERCC1) is widely recognized as a key gene regulating nucleotide excision repair (NER) and is closely associated with platinum response. Many studies have yielded conflicting results regarding whether ERCC1 polymorphisms can affect the response to platinum and overall survival (OS). Therefore, it is necessary to perform a meta-analysis of patients with specific races and cancer types. METHODS: Eight databases (EMBASE, PubMed, Cochrane Library, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, Scopus, VIP, China Biology Medicine disc and Wanfang databases) were searched. Results were expressed in terms of odds ratios (ORs), hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs. RESULTS: In this study, rs11615, rs2298881 and rs3212986 SNPs were studied. In the comparison between CT and TT on the response to platinum, esophageal cancer [I(2) = 0%, OR = 6.18, 95% CI(1.89,20.23), P = 0.003] and ovarian cancer [I(2) = 0%, OR = 4.94, 95% CI(2.21,11.04), P<0.001] showed that the rs11615 CT genotype predicted a better response. In the comparison between CC and TT, ovarian cancer [I(2) = 48.0%, OR = 6.15, 95% CI (2.56,14.29), P<0.001] indicated that the CC genotype predicted a better response. In the meta-analysis of OS, the CC genotype was related to longer OS than TT in ovarian cancer [TT vs CC: I(2) = 57.7%, HR = 1.71, 95% CI (1.18, 2.49), P<0.001]. CONCLUSION: The ERCC1 rs11615 polymorphism was related to the response to platinum and OS, but the correlation is based on specific cancer types in the Asian population.