Significant association between functional microRNA polymorphisms and head and neck cancer susceptibility: a comprehensive meta-analysis

Molecular epidemiological studies have showed a closer association between microRNA polymorphisms with and head and neck cancer (HNC) risk. But the results of these studies were inconsistent. We performed this meta-analysis to clarify the associations between microRNA polymorphisms and HNC risk. Four electronic databases (PubMed, Embase, CNKI, and Wanfang) were searched. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence interval (CIs) were calculated to assess the association between microRNA-146a rs2910164 G > C, microRNA-196a2 rs11614913 C > T, microRNA-149 rs2292832 C > T, microRNA-499 rs3746444 A > G polymorphisms and HNC risk. Heterogeneity, publication bias and sensitivity analysis were conducted to guarantee the statistical power. Overall, 11 selected articles involving 16100 subjects were included in this meta-analysis. Significantly increased risk between microRNA-146a rs2910164 G > C polymorphism and HNC risk were observed in Caucasian population (GC vs. GG: OR = 1.31, 95%CI = 1.01–1.68; GC + CC vs. GG: OR = 1.26, 95%CI = 1.02–1.57). For microRNA-196a2 rs11614913 C > T, similarly increased risk were also found in Asian population (T vs. C, OR = 1.14, 95%CI = 1.04–1.25; TT vs. CC, OR = 1.33, 95%CI = 1.09–1.61; CT + TT vs. CC OR = 1.32, 95%CI = 0.99–1.76; TT vs. CC + CT, OR = 1.14, 95%CI = 0.99–1.33). In addition, no significant association was detected between microRNA-149 rs2292832 C > T and microRNA-499 rs3746444 A > G polymorphism and HNC risk. This meta-analysis demonstrates that microRNA polymorphisms are associated with HNC development based on ethnicity diversity.