PLoS ONE (Jan 2012)

Association of GSTM1 null allele with prostate cancer risk: evidence from 36 case-control studies.

  • Bingbing Wei,
  • Zhuoqun Xu,
  • You Zhou,
  • Jun Ruan,
  • Huan Cheng,
  • Bo Xi,
  • Ming Zhu,
  • Ke Jin,
  • Deqi Zhou,
  • Qiang Hu,
  • Qiang Wang,
  • Zhirong Wang,
  • Zhiqiang Yan,
  • Feng Xuan,
  • Xing Huang,
  • Jian Zhang,
  • Hongyi Zhou

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0046982
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 10
p. e46982

Abstract

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BACKGROUND: Glutathione S-transferase M1 (GSTM1) is thought to be involved in detoxifying several carcinogens and may play a vital role in tumorigenesis. Numerous studies have evaluated the association between GSTM1 null/present polymorphism and risk of prostate cancer (PCa). However, the results remain inconsistent. To derive a more precise estimation, we performed a meta-analysis. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: A comprehensive search was conducted to identify all eligible case-control studies. We used odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) to assess the strength of the association. The overall association was significant (OR = 1.28, 95% CI: 1.11-1.48, P = 0.001). Moreover, subgroup analyses showed GSTM1 null genotype significantly associated with PCa risk among Asians (OR = 1.35, 95% CI: 1.03-1.78, P = 0.03) but not among Caucasians (OR = 1.12, 95% CI: 0.96-1.31, P = 0.16). In addition, we did not find that smoking modified the genotype effect on the risk of PCa. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The present meta-analysis suggested that GSTM1 null allele was a low-penetrant risk factor for PCa among Asians.