Interleukin-10-819 promoter polymorphism in association with gastric cancer risk

Each initially included article was scored for quality appraisal. Desirable data were extracted and registered into databases. 11 studies were ultimately eligible for the meta-analysis of IL-10 -819 T/C SNP. We adopted the most probably appropriate genetic model (recessive model). Potential sources of heterogeneity were sought out via subgroup and sensitivity analyses, and publication biases were estimated.IL-10 -819 TT genotype is associated with the overall reduced gastric cancer risk among Asians and even apparently observed among high quality subgroup Asians. IL-10-819 TT genotype is not statistically associated with the overall reduced gastric cancer susceptibility in persons with H. pylori infection compared with controls without H. pylori infection. IL-10 -819 TT genotype is reversely associated with diffuse-subtype risk but not in intestinal-subtype risk. IL-10 -819 TT genotype is not reversely associated with non-cardia or cardia subtype gastric cancer susceptibility.IL-10 -819 TT genotype seems to be more protective from gastric cancer in Asians. Whether IL-10 -819 TT genotype may be protective from gastric cancer susceptibility in persons infected with H. pylori or in diffuse-subtype cancer needs further exploring in the future well-designed high quality studies among different ethnicity populations. Direct sequencing should be more used in the future.Nowadays, worldwide gastric cancer incidence has decreased but its mortality still ranks second [1-3]. In Asia [4], especially China [5], gastric cancer constitutes the top lethal malignancy. As is widely known, infectious, dietary, environmental, and genetic factors are implicated in gastric carcinogenesis, but only a minority of persons exposed to risk factors such as Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection ultimately develop gastric cancer [6], which implies that host genetic susceptibility plays an important role in developing gastric cancer [7-9]. Such various susceptibilities could be explained, in p