RETRACTED ARTICLE: Association between XRCC1 Arg399Gln polymorphism and hepatitis virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma risk in Asian population

To investigate the association between X-ray repair cross-complementing group 1 (XRCC1) Arg399Gln polymorphism and hepatitis virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma risk, we performed a systematic meta-analysis of eligible case–control studies. Eligible studies were identified from the PubMed, Embase, and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure databases up to March 2013. The odds ratios (ORs) and corresponding 95 % confidence interval (95 % CI) of XRCC1 Arg399Gln polymorphism in hepatitis virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma cases compared with those in controls were calculated. The meta-analysis was performed using fixed-effect or random-effect methods according to the absence or presence of heterogeneity. This meta-analysis included 1,558 cases with hepatitis virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma and 1,338 controls. Meta-analysis of available data showed that there was no association between XRCC1 Arg399Gln polymorphism and risk of hepatitis virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma under all contrast models (Gln vs. Arg: fixed-effect OR = 0.92, 95 % CI 0.82–1.04, P = 0.18; GlnGln vs. ArgArg: random-effect OR = 0.79, 95 % CI 0.50–1.25, P = 0.32; GlnGln/ArgGln vs. ArgArg: fixed-effect OR = 0.92, 95 % CI 0.79–1.07, P = 0.28; and GlnGln vs. ArgArg/ArgGln: random-effect OR = 0.83, 95 % CI 0.52–1.34, P = 0.45). Sensitivity analysis further showed that there was no association between XRCC1 Arg399Gln polymorphism and risk of hepatitis B-related hepatocellular carcinoma under all contrast models (Gln vs. Arg: fixed-effect OR = 0.93, 95 % CI 0.82–1.05, P = 0.25; GlnGln vs. ArgArg: fixed-effect OR = 0.86, 95 % CI 0.64–1.16, P = 0.32; GlnGln/ArgGln vs. ArgArg: fixed-effect OR = 0.93, 95 % CI 0.80–1.10, P = 0.41; and GlnGln vs. ArgArg/ArgGln: fixed-effect OR = 0.85, 95 % CI 0.63–1.13, P = 0.26). Our meta-analysis of the available data did not find an obvious effect of XRCC1 Arg399Gln polymorphism on hepatitis-related hepatocellular carcinoma. More well-designed studies with large sample are needed to further verify the effect.