Purpose: Previous meta-analyses didn't suggest any significant association between TERT rs2736098 polymorphism and overall cancer risk, and the existing evidence lacks statistical power to draw a convincing conclusion.
Methods: Herein we performed an update meta-analysis to re-evaluate the association between rs2736098 polymorphism and the risk of overall cancer with all the case-control studies published before March 2015 according to PubMed and Embase databases.
Results: A total of 19 case-control studies were included in this analysis. We found that variant genotypes of rs2736098 (GA/AA) were significantly associated with an increased risk of overall cancer (GA/AA vs GG: OR=1.14; 95% CI=1.04-1.25). Additionally, the association was more significant in Asians (OR=1.20; 95% CI=1.07-1.34), while in subsequent analyses stratified by cancer type, the variant rs2736098 was definitely associated with increased lung cancer (OR=1.18; 95% CI=1.07-1.29) and hepatocellular carcinoma risk (OR=1.38; 95% CI=1.20-1.59).
Conclusion: These findings provided further evidence that TERT rs2736098 variant may modify the susceptibility to cancer.