Association of the interleukin-10 (IL-10) gene polymorphisms with ovarian cancer risk: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Background. Ovarian cancer is a cancer with high fatality due to its symptomless nature which leads to late diagnosis. Therefore, there is an urgent need to discover genetic markers which are related to predisposition to the disease. With anti-inflammatory cytokines playing a major role in cancer predisposition, the present systematic review and meta-analysis was undertaken to evaluate the association of the interleukin-10 (IL-10) gene polymorphisms with ovarian cancer risk. Material and methods. Online databases were searched for articles dating from June 2023 until inception for studies assessing the frequencies of IL-10 polymorphisms in ovarian cancer patients and controls. The odds ratios of the genotypes alongside with their respective 95% confidence intervals were calculated under three different genetic models. Results. A total of 5 records studying the IL-10-819 C>T and IL-10-1082 G>A polymorphisms were included in the quantitative analysis. The meta-analysis suggested that the IL-10-819 C>T polymorphism was significantly associated the risk of ovarian cancer under a dominant (CT + TT vs CC) inheritance model (OR = 2.67; 95% CI = [1.17,6.12]; p = 0.02). Conclusions. The meta-analysis suggested that the T allele of the IL-10-819 C>T is associated with increased risk of ovarian cancer, but there is no statistically significant association between the IL-10-1082 G>A polymorphism and ovarian cancer. Future studies are required to further verify these results.