Association between five types of Tumor Necrosis Factor-α gene polymorphism and hepatocellular carcinoma risk: a meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Research focusing on the relationship between five types of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) SNPs and the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) were still controversial. Hereby, we performed a meta-analysis to determine the association between TNF-α promoter SNPs: -1031 T/C, − 863 C/A, − 857 C/T, − 308 G/A, and − 238 G/A with HCC risk. METHODS: We interrogated articles from journal database: PubMed, Pro-Quest, EBSCO, Science Direct, and Springer to determine the relationship between five types of SNPs in TNF-α gene with HCC risk. RevMan 5.3 software was used for analysis in fixed/random effect models. RESULTS: This meta-analysis included 23 potential articles from 2004 to 2018 with 3237 HCC cases and 4843 controls. We found that SNP − 863 C/A were associated with a significantly increased HCC risk (A vs C, OR = 1.31, 95% CI = 1.03–1.67). Similar results were obtained in − 857 C/T (TT/CT vs CC, OR = 1.31, 95% CI = 1.06–1.62), − 308 G/A (AA vs GG, OR = 3.14, 95% CI = 2.06–4.79), and − 238 G/A (AA vs GG, OR = 3.87, 95% CI = 1.32–11.34). While no associations were observed between SNP TNF-α − 1031 T/C and HCC risk. CONCLUSIONS: The present meta-analysis showed that TNFα SNPs -863C/A, − 857 C/T, − 308 G/A, and − 238 G/A were associated with the risk of HCC. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12885-020-07606-6.