Association of the 8473T>C Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) Gene Polymorphism with Lung Cancer Risk in Asians

Objective: To evaluate the impact of the COX-2 gene 8473T > C polymorphism on lung cancer risk in Asians, we conducted a comprehensive meta-analysis. Methods: A literature search was performed using PubMed and other databases before June 2010. We pooled studies according to the variants of 8473T > C and performed separate analyses according to ethnicity, histological type and smoking status, with attention to study quality and publication bias. Results: A total of five case-control studies including 2,450 cases and 4,302 controls were available. Overall, individuals with the C allele had a reduced lung cancer risk compared with the TT genotype on global analysis (odds ratio [OR] =0.89, 95% confidence interval [CI] =0.81 to 0.97, P=0.01, I-2 for heterogeneity =0%). Significant associations were also observed in subgroups of Asian populations (OR=0.84, 95% CI=0.72 to 0.98) when stratified by ethnicity, as well as for small cell lung cancer (OR=0.54, 95% CI=0.31 to 0.95) stratified by pathological type. Conclusions: Our results suggest the COX-2 gene is a factor for suffering from lung cancer, especially of small cell type among Asians.