Quantitative assessment of lncRNA HOTAIR polymorphisms and cancer risk in Chinese population: a meta-analysis based on 26,810 subjects

As a well-known long non-coding RNA, HOTAIR has been demonstrated to be involved in carcinogenesis and progression of various human cancers. Previous studies have investigated the potential association between HOTAIR polymorphisms and cancer risk in Chinese population. However, the results remain conflicting. Therefore, for the first time, we conducted a meta-analysis to derive a more precise estimation of these associations for Chinese. PubMed, Embase, CNKI and Wanfang databases were systematically searched. Odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals were applied to assess the association between rs920778, rs4759314, rs7958904, rs874945 and rs1899663 polymorphisms of HOTAIR and cancer susceptibility. Heterogeneity, sensitivity analysis and publication bias were conducted to measure the robustness of our findings. A total of 21 eligible studies comprising 12,278 cases and 14,532 controls were analyzed. The pooled data showed that rs920778 polymorphism was significantly associated with an increased cancer risk in all five genetic models in Chinese population. As for rs4759314 and rs874945 polymorphisms, similarly increased risks were found in specific genetic models and stratified groups. However, significant decreases in cancer risk were observed for rs7958904 in the total population, as well as in subgroup analyses. In addition, lack of association was detected between rs1899663 polymorphism and cancer susceptibility. In summary, our meta-analysis implicates possible relationship between HOTAIR polymorphisms and cancer risk in Chinese population.