The association between MTHFR gene C677T polymorphism and ALL risk based on a meta-analysis involving 17,469 subjects.

BACKGROUND

The methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene C677T polymorphism is closely related to the acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) indicated by many previous epidemiologic studies. However, their conclusions were still conflicting.

METHODS

Our aim is to evaluate their associations using a more comprehensive updated meta-analysis. Electronic searches were conducted to select published studies prior to February, 2016.

RESULTS

Totally, 39 case-control studies including 6551 ALL cases and 10,918 controls were selected in current meta-analysis. The association was detected significantly between MTHFR C677T polymorphism and ALL reducing susceptibility.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results indicate that the MTHFR C677T polymorphism may be a promising ALL biomarker and studies to explore the protein levels of the variants and their functional role are required for the definitive conclusions.