Genetic Association between NFKBIA and NFKB1 Gene Polymorphisms and the Susceptibility to Head and Neck Cancer: A Meta-Analysis

BACKGROUND: The role of the NFKB1 gene rs28362491 polymorphism and NFKBIA gene rs2233406 polymorphism in the development of head and neck cancer (HNC) remains controversial. This meta-analysis was performed to assess the relationship between the gene polymorphisms and HNC quantitatively. METHODS: PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, WanFang Data, and China National Knowledge databases were used to search for eligible articles. The relationship was evaluated by STATA 11.0. RESULTS: Eight eligible articles were included in our study. Nine case-control studies from the eight included articles were correlated with rs28362491 polymorphism. Four articles were related to rs2233406 polymorphism. Overall, a significant correlation was observed between the rs28362491 polymorphism and a decreased risk of HNCs (OR = 0.76, 95%CI = 0.60‐0.97 for DD vs. II; OR = 0.80, 95%CI = 0.68‐0.95 for DD vs. DI+II). In subgroup analyses, the rs28362491 polymorphism was associated with the risk of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NC), but not with oral cancer (OC). In addition, no statistical correlation was found between the polymorphism of rs2233406 and HNCs. CONCLUSION: rs28362491 polymorphism was significantly associated with the risk of HNCs, especially with NC. Additionally, our results showed that no association was discovered between rs2233406 polymorphism and HNCs.