Association between steroid 5-alpha-reductase type 2 (SRD5A2) V89L and A49T polymorphisms and prostate cancer risk: a meta-analysis study

Numerous investigations have examined the associations between steroid 5-alpha-reductase type 2 (SRD5A2) V89L and A49T polymorphisms and prostate cancer risk; however, the conclusions were contradictory. The current meta-analysis was performed to comprehensively re-evaluate such associations. Two investigators independently searched the PubMed, EMBASE, and CNKI databases to seek eligible studies. Ultimately, a total of 11,758 cases and 12,397 controls from 33 studies were identified for the V89L, and 5,902 cases and 7,270 controls from 13 studies for the A49T. The pooled analysis did not yield any statistically significant associations between both V89L and A49T polymorphisms and prostate cancer risk (e.g., LL + VV vs. VV for V89L: OR = 1.02; 95% CI 0.97, 1.08, P = 0.425, I-2 = 3.7; TT + AT vs. AA for A49T: OR = 1.20; 95% CI 0.90, 1.59, P = 0.208, I-2 = 68.6). In stratification analyses, we also did not find significant associations between the variants and prostate cancer risk. These results suggested that the SRD5A2 V89L and A49T polymorphisms might not modulate the prostate cancer risk. More well designed studies with large sample sizes are warranted to validate our findings.