Interleukin‐8 ‐251A/T gene polymorphism and lung cancer susceptibility: a meta‐analysis

Many studies have examined the association between the interleukin‐8 ‐251T/A ( rs4073 ) gene polymorphism and lung cancer risk in various populations, but the results have been inconsistent. In this meta‐analysis, PubMed was searched for case–control studies published through 01 December 2013. The data were extracted, and pooled odds ratios ( OR ) with 95% confidence intervals ( CI ) were calculated. We assessed six published studies on the association between the interleukin‐8 ‐251T/A polymorphism and lung cancer risk. The included studies yielded a total of 3265 lung cancer cases and 3607 controls. For the homozygous A/A and A allele carriers (T/A + A/A), the pooled OR s for all studies combining 3265 cases and 3607 controls were 1.03 (95% CI  = 0.92–1.14; P  = 0.235 for heterogeneity) and 1.07 (95% CI  = 0.96–1.19; P  = 0.245 for heterogeneity) when compared with the homozygous wild‐type genotype (T/T). When the analysis was stratified by ethnicity, significant risks were found among Asians for both the A allele carriers and the homozygous A/A individuals. However, no significant associations were found in non‐ A sian populations using any of the genetic models. This meta‐analysis suggests that the interleukin‐8 ‐251A allele confer an increased risk for the development of lung cancer among A sians.