Association between vitamin D receptor gene BsmI polymorphism and susceptibility to prostate cancer

The polymorphisms of the vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene have been hypothesized to alter the risk of prostate cancer; however, published data concerning the association between VDR gene BsmI polymorphism and prostate cancer susceptibility are somewhat inconclusive. To evaluate the impact of VDR gene BsmI polymorphism on prostate cancer risk, a meta-analysis on all eligible studies including 7,666 patients and 8,073 control subjects was carried out. No obvious association of this variant on prostate cancer risk was found in the overall results. However, in subgroup analysis by ethnicity, we indicated positive associations in Caucasian descendants for dominant genetic model (OR = 0.91, 95% CI = 0.83-1.00, Pheterogeneity = 0.129, P = 0.042, I 2 = 33.7), but not in Asian descendants (OR = 1.07, 95% CI = 0.59-1.92, Pheterogeneity = 0.307, P = 0.834, I 2 = 16.6) and African-Americans (OR = 1.52, 95% CI = 0.84-2.76, Pheterogeneity = 0.066, P = 0.171, I 2 = 63.3). Furthermore, in the subgroup analysis by source of control, no obvious association was observed in neither population-based (dominant genetic model OR = 0.95, 95% CI = 0.871.03, Pheterogeneity = 0.084, P = 0.224, I 2 = 36.5) or hospital-based studies (OR = 0.74, 95% CI = 0.49-1.12, Pheterogeneity = 0.087, P = 0.157, I2 = 48.0). In conclusion, VDR BsmI polymorphism may be related to prostate cancer in Caucasian descendants. Future well-designed and more diverse case-control populations are warranted to further evaluate this conclusion in more detail.