Aberrant promoter methylation of p15 INK4b and p16 INK4a genes may contribute to the pathogenesis of multiple myeloma: a meta-analysis

We carried out the current meta-analysis aiming to comprehensively assess the potential role of p15 INK4b and p16 INK4a aberrant promoter methylation in the pathogenesis of multiple myeloma (MM). The MEDLINE (1966 ~ 2013), Cochrane Library (Issue 12, 2013), EMBASE (1980 ~ 2013), CINAHL (1982 ~ 2013), Web of Science (1945 ~ 2013), and Chinese Biomedical (CBM) (1982 ~ 2013) databases were searched without language restrictions. Meta-analyses were conducted using Stata software (Version 12.0, Stata Corporation, College Station, TX, USA). Odds ratios (ORs) and their 95 % confidence intervals (95 %CIs) were calculated. Thirteen clinical case–control studies, which enrolled a total of 465 MM patients and 180 healthy subjects, were included in the meta-analysis. The results of our meta-analysis demonstrated that the frequencies of p15 INK4b and p16 INK4a promoter methylation in cancer samples were significantly higher than in normal samples (p15 INK4b : OR = 6.26, 95 %CI = 3.87 ~ 10.12, P 0.05). The current meta-analysis confirms and reinforces existing findings that p15 INK4b and p16 INK4a promoter methylation may be closely implicated in the pathogenesis of MM.