Meta-analysis of studies on the association between the NF-κB1-94ins/del ATTG promoter polymorphism and cancer

Nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB), a cell survival signal, is involved in carcinogenesis. Polymorphism of NF-κB1 is associated with cancer by several studies. This study aims to perform a comprehensive meta-analysis of studies and determine the association between the NF-κB1-94ins/del ATTG promoter polymorphism and cancer. Twenty-five case–control studies (7,281 cases and 10,039 controls) were included. We used odds ratios (ORs) to assess the strength of the association, and 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) to identify precision of the estimate. Overall, NF-κB1-94ins/del ATTG promoter polymorphism was significantly associated with decreased susceptibility to cancer in overall population under homozygote (for DD vs. WW: OR = 0.74, 95 % CI = 0.58–0.96), recessive (for DD vs. WD+WW: OR = 0.82, 95 % CI = 0.69–0.99), dominant (for DD+WD vs. WW: OR = 0.84, 95 % CI = 0.71–1.00), and allele (for D vs. W: OR = 0.88, 95 % CI = 0.78–0.98) model. Subgroup analysis for ethnicity found that NF-κB1-94ins/del ATTG promoter polymorphism was significantly associated with decreased susceptibility to cancer in Asians (for DD vs. WW: OR = 0.54, 95 % CI = 0.40–0.74; for WD vs. WW: OR = 0.75, 95 % CI = 0.69–0.81; for DD vs. WD+WW: OR = 0.70, 95 % CI = 0.55–0.90; for DD+WD vs. WW; OR = 0.66, 95 % CI = 0.56–0.78; for D vs. W: OR = 0.75, 95 % CI = 0.65–0.86), but the association was not found in Caucasians. The findings suggest that NF-κB1-94ins/delATTG promoter polymorphism is significantly associated with decreased susceptibility to cancer in overall and Asian population.