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. 2018 Dec 18:2018:3720684.
doi: 10.1155/2018/3720684. eCollection 2018.

Homocysteine and Digestive Tract Cancer Risk: A Dose-Response Meta-Analysis

Jun Xu  1 , Xin Zhao  2 , Shanwen Sun  1 , Peng Ni  1 , Chujun Li  3 , Anjing Ren  1 , Wei Wang  4 , Lingjun Zhu  1
Affiliations

Homocysteine and Digestive Tract Cancer Risk: A Dose-Response Meta-Analysis

Jun Xu et al. J Oncol. .

Abstract

Background: Homocysteine, a key component in one-carbon metabolism, is of great importance in remethylation. Many epidemiologic studies have assessed the association between homocysteine and risk of digestive tract cancer, but the results are inconsistent.

Objective: The objective of our meta-analysis is to assess the association between homocysteine and digestive tract cancer risk.

Methods: Comprehensive searches were performed on the PubMed, Embase, Cochrane, and Web of Science databases up to September 25, 2018, to identify relevant studies. Thirteen studies were included in the meta-analysis. Odds ratios (ORs) and their corresponding 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were used to estimate the strength of the relationship between homocysteine and the risk of digestive tract cancer.

Results: The pooled OR of digestive tract cancer risk for patients with the highest categories of blood homocysteine levels versus the lowest categories was 1.27 (95% CI, 1.15, 1.39) with no significant heterogeneity observed (P = 0.798, I 2 = 0.0%). Moreover, the dose-response analysis revealed that each 5μmol/L increase in homocysteine increased the incidence of digestive tract cancer by 7%.

Conclusion: Generally, our results indicated that elevated homocysteine was associated with higher risk of digestive tract cancer. That is, homocysteine concentration may be a potential biomarker for occurrence of digestive tract cancer.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow diagram of the study identification and selection.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Forest plot of highest versus lowest categories of homocysteine on digestive cancer risk. The squares and horizontal lines correspond to the study-specific ORs and 95% CI. The area of the squares reflects the weight. The diamond represents the summary OR and 95% CI. ORs, Odds ratios; CI, confidence interval.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Dose-response analyses of the linear association between homocysteine and the risk of digestive cancer.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Begg's funnel plot for publication bias test of the relationship between homocysteine and digestive cancer risk.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Influence analysis of the pooled relative risk coefficients on the relationship between homocysteine and digestive cancer risk. The two ends of the dotted lines represent the 95% CI.
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