The Arg399Gln polymorphism in the XRCC1 gene is associated with increased risk of hematological malignancies

The associations between the Arg399Gln polymorphism in X-ray repair cross-complementing gene 1 (XRCC1) gene and the risk of hematological malignancies have been extensively investigated. However, the results were inconsistent. The objective of the current study is to investigate the association by meta-analysis. We searched PubMed database, Embase database, CNKI database, Wanfang database, and Weipu database, covering all studies until August 7, 2013. Statistical analysis was performed by using the Revman4.2 software and the Stata10.0 software. A total of 27 case–control studies concerning the Arg399Gln polymorphism were included from 26 articles. The results suggested that the Arg399Gln polymorphism was not associated with an increased/decreased risk of hematological malignancies in total analysis (OR = 1.15, 95 % confidence interval (CI) = 0.97–1.35, P = 0.10 for Arg/Gln + Gln/Gln vs. Arg/Arg). In the subgroup analysis by ethnicity and cancer types, significant association was found in Asians (OR = 1.35, 95 % CI = 1.04–1.75, P = 0.03) but not in Europeans (OR = 1.07, 95 % CI = 0.86–1.33, P = 0.56), and in leukemia (OR = 1.25, 95 % CI = 1.02–1.54, P = 0.03) but not in lymphoma (OR = 0.98, 95 % CI = 0.80–1.20, P = 0.84) or myeloma (OR = 1.13, 95 % CI = 0.23–5.69, P = 0.88). The current meta-analysis indicated that the Arg399Gln polymorphism in the XRCC1 gene might be a risk factor for hematological malignancies in Asians or for leukemia. In future, more large-scale case–control studies are needed to validate these results.