Recent studies have focused on the associations of catalase polymorphisms with various types of cancer, including cervical and prostate cancers. However, the results were inconsistent. To obtain a more reliable conclusion, we evaluated the relationship between the two common catalase gene polymorphisms (rs1001179 and rs794316) and cancer risk by a meta-analysis. Our meta-analysis included 37 published studies involving 14,942 cancer patients and 43,285 cancer-free controls. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to evaluate the cancer risk. The results demonstrated that the rs1001179 polymorphism was associated with an increased cancer risk in the recessive and homozygote models (TT vs. CC: OR = 1.19, P = 0.01; TT vs. CT+CC: OR = 1.19, P <0.001). Furthermore, stratified analyses revealed a significant association between the rs1001179 polymorphism and prostate cancer in all models except the homozygote comparison. An association of the rs794316 polymorphism with cancer risk was detected in two genetic models (TT vs. AA: OR = 1.34, 95% CI = 1.03-1.74, P <0.001; TT vs. AT+AA: OR = 1.39, 95% CI = 1.09-1.77, P = 0.01). Additional well-designed studies with large samples should be performed to validate our results.
Keywords: cancer; catalase; meta-analysis; polymorphism; susceptibility.