Association between the Functional Polymorphism of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Gene and Breast Cancer: A Meta-Analysis

The vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) gene single-nucleotide polymorphism involved in the regulation of the protein levels has been implicated in breast cancer. However, the published studies have produced contentious and controversial results. Herein, we performed a meta-analysis (from January to October 2013); to further evaluate the association between +936 C/T polymorphism and the risk of breast cancer. By searching the EMBASE, PubMed, and Web of Science databases, we identified a total of 12 case-control studies with 8,979 cancer patients and 9,180 healthy controls. The strength of the association was assessed using Odds Ratios (ORs) with 95% Confidence Intervals (CI). We found no evidence indicating that the allelic model or the genotype models of +936 C/T polymorphism were associated with the risk of breast cancer in total population (OR(CC vs. TT)=1.01, 95% CI=0.96-1.06, P(h)=1.00; OR(CC+CT vs. TT)=1.00, 95% CI=0.96-1.05, P(h)=1.00; OR(CC vs. CT+TT)=1.02, 95% CI=0.98-1.07, P(h)=0.94; OR (allele C vs. allele T)=1.01, 95% CI=0.98-1.04, P(h)=0.99; OR(CT vs. TT)=1.01, 95% CI=0.93-1.09, P(h)=1.00). Such lack of association with breast cancer was also observed in subgroup analyses according to ethnicity as well as in the analysis by source of controls. In conclusion, this meta-analysis suggests that the functionally important +936 C/T polymorphism may not be associated with breast cancer risk. Larger well-designed studies with gene-to-gene and gene-to-environment interactions are clearly required to validate the results further.