BACKGROUND: Growing evidence indicates that a non-coding RNA named miR-34b/c plays crucial roles in carcinogenesis, and its common polymorphism, pri-miR-34b/c rs4938723, also participates in this process and is associated with cancer susceptibility. However, this association was previously undefined and ambiguous. Therefore, we carried out an updated analysis to evaluate this relationship between rs4938723 polymorphism and cancer susceptibility.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: PubMed, EMbase, Web of Science and Chinese language (WanFang, CNKI and VIP) databases were searched for relevant studies until Sep 10, 2018. Odds ratios and 95% confidence interval were applied to assess this relationship.

RESULTS: Thirty case-control studies were retrieved. No positive association was found in either the overall study population or in the subgroups, based on ethnicity, source of group, sex, smoking, and drinking status. The main results were observed in the stratified analysis subgroups in cancer type subgroup: rs4938723 polymorphism may be a protective factor in leukemia, colorectal cancer, and esophageal cancer; however, C-allele was a risk factor in carriers for hepatocellular carcinoma. Last but not the least, poor positive results were discovered in the age subgroup.

CONCLUSIONS: Current meta-analysis suggested that rs4938723 polymorphism was potentially associated with hepatocellular carcinoma risk, but this polymorphism had a decreased association for susceptibility to esophageal cancer, leukemia, and colorectal cancer. Furthermore, studies with larger sample sizes and including gene-gene or gene-environment interactions should be carried out to elucidate the role of rs4938723 polymorphism in cancer risk.

Keywords: Early Detection of Cancer, Ethnic Groups, Polymorphism, Genetic