Association between interleukin-8 rs4073 polymorphism and prostate cancer: A meta-analysis

Background/purpose Interleukin-8 (IL-8) is an inflammatory cytokine and plays important role in development of cancers. We conducted a meta-analysis to explore the association between IL-8 rs4073 polymorphism and risk of prostate cancer. Methods PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science databases were searched for only case–control studies published before February 2019. The methodological quality assessment of included studies was performed based on Newcastle–Ottawa Quality Scale (NOS). Based on the heterogeneity, we conducted a meta-analysis using random-effect models. Pooled odds ratios (ORs) with a 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated using the allele (T vs. A), homozygous (TT vs. AA), heterozygous (TA vs. AA), dominant (TT + TA vs. AA), and recessive (TT vs. TA + AA) genetic models to assess the strength of the relationship between IL-8 rs4073 polymorphism and prostate cancer risk. In addition, the stability of our analysis was evaluated by heterogeneity, sensitivity, subgroup of ethnicity and study design, and publication bias analysis. Results We included 6 case–control studies with a total of 1752 cases and 1982 controls. Significantly higher prostate cancer risk of 1.12 (95% CI = 1.01–1.25), 1.26 (95% CI = 1.03–1.55), and 1.20 (95% CI = 1.02–1.41) were found for the allele, homogeneous, and recessive model, respectively. Though there was no statistical association with other genetic models in our meta-analyses, a tendency of higher prostate cancer risk was observed in all five genetic models. Conclusion The major findings of this meta-analysis suggested that IL-8 rs4073 polymorphism is significantly associated with risk of prostate cancer.