Association of STXBP4/COX11 rs6504950 (G>A) polymorphism with breast cancer risk: evidence from 17,960 cases and 22,713 controls

Background and aims: Epidemiological studies have investigated the association between STXBP4/COX11 rs6504950 (G>A) polymorphism and breast cancer susceptibility. However, the results are still controversial. Hence, we conducted a meta-analysis of the STXBP4/COX11 polymorphism and risk of breast cancer to obtain the most reliable estimate of the association.

Methods: PubMed, Embase and Web of Science databases were searched. Crude odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were extracted and pooled to assess the strength of the association between STXBP4/COX11 rs6504950 (G>A) polymorphism with breast cancer risk.

Results: A total of four eligible studies including 17,960 cases and 22,713 controls based on the search criteria were involved in this meta-analysis. The distributions of genotypes in the controls were all in agreement with Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. We observed that STXBP4/COX11 rs6504950 polymorphism was significantly correlated with breast cancer risk when all studies were pooled into the meta-analysis (the allele contrast model: OR = 0.93, 95% CI = 0.87-0.99; the heterozygote codominant model: OR = 0.87, 95% CI = 0.83-0.90; the dominant model OR = 0.92, 95% CI = 0.88-0.96).

Conclusion: This meta-analysis indicated that the rs6504950 AA/AG genotypes are associated with a significantly decreased risk of breast carcinogenesis.