Purpose: The study aims to provide a comprehensive account of the association of five MDM4 gene polymorphisms (rs1380576, rs1563828, rs10900598, rs11801299, and rs4245739) with susceptibility to cancer.
Methods: A literature search for eligible candidate gene studies published before 27 February 2021 was conducted in PubMed, Medline and Web of Science. The following combinations of main keywords were used: (MDM4 OR MDMX OR HDMX OR mouse double minute 4 homolog) AND (polymorphism OR mutation OR variation OR SNP OR genotype) AND (cancer OR tumor OR neoplasm OR malignancy OR carcinoma OR adenocarcinoma). Potential sources of heterogeneity were sought out via meta-regression, subgroup and sensitivity analysis.
Results: Overall, a total of 15 articles with 21,365 cases and 29,280 controls for five polymorphisms of the MDM4 gene were enrolled. In the stratified analysis of rs1380576, we found that Asians might have less susceptibility to cancer. We found that rs4245739 was correlated with a decreased risk of cancer for Asians and breast cancer susceptibility. However, for other polymorphisms, the results showed no significant association with cancer risk.
Conclusion: MDM4 rs1380576 polymorphism is negatively associated with the risk of cancer in the Asian population. MDM4 rs4245739 polymorphism is inversely associated with cancer risk for Asians and breast cancer susceptibility.
Keywords: MDM4; Mouse double minute 4 homolog; cancer; meta-analysis; single-nucleotide polymorphism.