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The CAG repeat polymorphism of androgen receptor gene and prostate cancer: a meta-analysis

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Abstract

The association between the polymorphic CAG repeat in androgen receptor gene (AR) and prostate cancer susceptibility has been studied extensively. However, the results are contradictory. The purpose of our meta-analysis was to investigate whether CAG repeat related to prostate cancer risk and had genetic heterogeneity across different geographic regions and study designs. Random-effects model was performed irrespective of between-study heterogeneity. Data and study quality were assessed in duplicate. Publication bias was assessed by the fail-safe number and Egger’s test. There were 16 (patients/controls: 2972/3792), 19 (3835/4908) and 12 (3372/2631) study groups for comparisons of ≥20, 22 and 23 repeats of CAG sequence, respectively. Compared with CAG repeat <20, 22 or 23, carriers of ≥20, 22 or 23 repeats had 21% (95% CI: 0.61–1.02; P = 0.076), 5% (95% CI: 0.81–1.11; P = 0.508) and 5% (95% CI: 0.76–1.20; P = 0.681) decreased risk of prostate cancer. After classifying studies by geographic areas, carriers of ≥20 repeats had 11% decreased risk in populations from USA, 53% from Europe, and 20% from Asia (P > 0.05), whereas comparison of ≥23 repeats with others generated a significant prediction in European populations (OR = 1.17; P = 0.039). Stratification by study designs revealed no material changes in risk estimation. Meta-regression analysis found no significant sources of between-study heterogeneity for age, study design and geographic region for all comparisons. There was no identified publication bias. Taken together, our results demonstrated that AR CAG repeat polymorphism with ≥20 repeats might confer a protective effect among the prostate cancer patients with 45 years older but not all the prostate cancer patients.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the SMC Excellent Young Faculty Award of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (W. N.), the Youth Foundation of Shanghai Municipal Health Bureau (2010Y050), the Shanghai “Chen Guang” Project (09CG12), the Shanghai Rising Star Program (11QA1405500), the Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai Municipality (09ZR1426200), and the National Science Foundation for Young Scientists of China (30900808).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Genome Science and Information, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Mingliang Gu

  2. Departments of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA

    Xiaoqun Dong

  3. Clinical Laboratory of Biochemistry, Central Hospital of Shengli Oil Field, China Petrochemical Corporation, Dongying, Shandong, China

    Xuezhi Zhang

  4. State Key Laboratory of Medical Genomics, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Ruijin Second Road 197, Shanghai, 200025, China

    Wenquan Niu

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  1. Mingliang Gu
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Correspondence to Wenquan Niu.

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M. Gu and X. Dong contributed equally to this work.

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Gu, M., Dong, X., Zhang, X. et al. The CAG repeat polymorphism of androgen receptor gene and prostate cancer: a meta-analysis. Mol Biol Rep 39, 2615–2624 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-011-1014-9

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