Association between P16INK4a Promoter Methylation and HNSCC: A Meta-Analysis of 21 Published Studies

Background The p16(INK4a) is an important tumor suppressor gene (TSG) and aberrant methylation of promoter is known to be a major inactivation mechanism of the tumor suppressor and tumor-related genes. Aberrant TSG methylation was considered an important epigenetic silencing mechanism in the progression of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). However, some studies have reported differences in the methylation frequencies of P16(INK4a) promoter between cancer and the corresponding control group. Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis to better identify the association. Methods PubMed, Ovid, ISI Web of Science, and EMBASE were searched to identify eligible studies to evaluate the association of p16(INK4a) promoter methylation and HNSCC. Odds ratio (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were calculated to evaluate the strength of association between p16(INK4a) promoter methylation and HNSCC. Results A total of twenty-one studies with 1155 cases and 1017 controls were included in the meta-analysis. The frequencies of p16(INK4a) promoter methylation in the cancer group were significantly higher than those in the control group (cancer group: median: 46.67%, range = 7.84%-95.12%; control group: median: 18.37%, range = 0-83.33%; respectively). The pooled odds ratio was 3.37 (95% CI = 2.32-4.90) in the cancer group versus the corresponding control group under the random-effects model. Conclusion This meta-analysis of 21 published studies identified that aberrant methylation of p16(INK4a) promoter was found to be significantly associated with HNSCC.