Abstract

INTRODUCTION A series of studies have evaluated the association between -592A>C and -819T>C polymorphisms in the promoter regions of Interleukin-10 (IL-10) and gastric cancer (GC) risk. However, the results remain inconclusive. OBJECTIVE To better understand the association of the polymorphisms with GC risk, we performed a comprehensive meta-analysis. METHOD An electronic search was performed of several databases to identify relevant studies up to April 2018. RESULTS A total of 44 case-control studies, including 26 studies on IL-10 -592A>C (5,332 cases and 8,272 controls) and 18 studies on IL-10 -819T>C (3,431 cases and 6,109 controls) were selected. Overall, -592A>C polymorphism was associated with the risk of GC under the heterozygote model (OR=1.153, 95% CI=1.020-1.305, p=0.023), but not -819T>C polymorphism. When stratified by ethnicity, significant association was only observed in the Asians under the allele model (OR=1.153, 95% CI=1.007-1.320, p=0.040) and the heterozygote model (OR=1.218, 95% CI=1.076-1.379, p=0.002) for -592A>C. CONCLUSION The current meta-analysis results inconsistent with previous meta-analyses; showed that the IL-10 -592A>C polymorphism, but not -819T>C polymorphism, may be contributed to the susceptibility of GC in overall and Asian populations.