CD24 single nucleotide polymorphisms and cancer risk

Cluster of differentiation 24 (CD24) has been implicated in the development of cancer. Several single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in CD24 gene are reported to exert diverse effect on cancer risk. However, the association between CD24 SNPs and cancer risk remains unclear due to contradictory published findings. We performed a meta-analysis by pooling all available published studies on the susceptibility of CD24 rs52812045 and rs3838646 polymorphisms to cancer. The pooled odds ratios (ORs) with 95 % confidence intervals (95 % CIs) were calculated. There were five independent case-control studies with 5,539 cases and 10,241 controls included into the present study. The pooled results showed that no appreciable relationship was identified between any of the SNPs of CD24 and cancer risk. Interestingly, a protective role of the CD24 rs3838646 polymorphism was found in the risk of breast cancer, but lack of statistical significance (del allele vs. TG allele: OR = 0.89; 95 % CI, 0.79-1.01; P (OR) = 0.063; del/del vs. TG/TG: OR = 0.70; 95 % CI, 0.44-1.12; P (OR) = 0.135; del/TG vs. TG/TG: OR = 0.91; 95 % CI, 0.80-1.04, P (OR) = 0.180; del/del + del/TG vs. TG/TG: OR = 0.90; 95 % CI, 0.79-1.03; P (OR) = 0.123; del/del vs. TG/TG + del/TG: OR = 0.69; 95 % CI, 0.44-1.08, P (OR) = 0.105). Our study firstly provides the evidence that SNPs (rs52812045 and rs3838646) of CD24 may not modify the risk of cancer. Nonetheless, more individual studies with high quality are needed for further elucidation.