Genetic association between TNF-α promoter polymorphism and susceptibility to squamous cell carcinoma, basal cell carcinoma, and melanoma: A meta-analysis

Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) is a multifunctional pro-inflammatory cytokine that plays an important role in cancer development. We performed a meta-analysis to assess the relationship between single nucleotide polymorphisms in the TNF-α promoter region (rs1800629 and rs361525) and susceptibility to squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and melanoma. After database retrieval, article selection, data extraction, and quality assessment, 20 articles comprising 4865 cases and 6329 controls were included in this study. rs1800629 was associated with an increased overall risk of SCC, lung SCC, and oral SCC in the AA vs G and AA vs GG+GA genetic models (all OR>1, P(association)<0.05). No increased risk of skin SCC, skin BCC or melanoma was observed (all P(association)>0.05). Rs361525 was not associated with overall SCC risk in the allele, heterozygote, dominant, recessive, or carrier model (all P(association)>0.05). Begg's and Egger's tests (P(Begg)>0.05; P(Egger)>0.05) demonstrated there was no significant publication bias. These data indicate that the AA genotype of TNF-α rs1800629, but not rs361525, is associated with an increased risk of SCC, suggesting it could potentially serve as a prognostic marker for predicting SCC risk.