Vitamin D receptor I polymorphism and the risk of prostate cancer: a meta-analysis.

Numerous previous studies reported the association of Vitamin D receptor gene polymorphism with prostate cancer risk, however these results were controversial. In order to provide a relatively comprehensive description of this relationship, we conducted this meta-analysis by searching PubMed, Embase, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure. Finally, 36 studies with 8,423 cases and 8,887 controls were included. polymorphism was found to marginally increase the prostate cancer risk in recessive genetic model (tt/Tt vs. TT: Odds Ratio (OR) = 0.89, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) = 0.80-1.00, = 0.05) and allele genetic model (t vs. T allele: OR = 0.91, 95% CI = 0.84-0.99, = 0.003) in the overall analysis. Subgroup analyses showed that significant increased risk was found in Asians in homozygote model (tt vs. TT: OR = 0.63, 95% CI = 0.41-0.95, = 0.029) and allele genetic model (t vs. T: OR = 0.78, 95% CI = 0.67-0.90, = 0.002), and in the subgroup of population-based controls in all the genetic models. These results suggest that polymorphism might be a risk factor of prostate cancer risk, especially in Asians. It could be considered as a promising target to predict the prostate cancer risk for clinical practice.