Association between MGMT Promoter Methylation and Risk of Breast and Gynecologic Cancers: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

The role of the promoter methylation of O (6)-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) remains controversial for breast and gynecologic cancers. We conducted a meta-analysis to assess the association between hypermethylation of MGMT promoter and the risk of breast and gynecologic cancers. A comprehensive search was conducted in PubMed and Embase electronic databases up to 19th August 2017 for studies about the association between MGMT promoter hypermethylation and breast and gynecologic cancers. A total of 28 articles including 2,171 tumor tissues and 1,191 controls were involved in the meta-analysis. The pooled results showed that MGMT promoter methylation status was significantly associated with an increased risk of breast and gynecologic cancers (OR = 4.37, 95% CI: 2.68–7.13, P < 0.05). The associations were robust in subgroup analysis based on ethnicity, cancer type, methylation detection method, and control source. This meta-analysis indicated that MGMT hypermethylation was significantly associated with the risk of breast and gynecological cancers, and it may be utilized as a valuable biomarker in early diagnostics and prognostication of these cancers. Further efforts are needed to identify and validate this finding in prospective studies, especially in situation with new methylation testing methods and samples from plasma circulating DNA.