A meta-analysis of the relationship between ataxia-telangiectasia mutated gene polymorphisms and lung cancer susceptibility

Somatic and germline ATM variants in non-small-cell lung cancer: Therapeutic implications

ATM is an apical kinase of the DNA damage response involved in the repair of DNA double-strand breaks. Germline ATM variants (gATM) have been associated with an increased risk of developing lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD), and approximately 9% of LUAD tumors harbor somatic ATM mutations (sATM). Biallelic carriers of pathogenic gATM exhibit a plethora of immunological abnormalities, but few studies have evaluated the contribution of immune dysfunction to lung cancer susceptibility. Indeed, little is known about the clinicopathological characteristics of lung cancer patients with sATM or gATM alterations. The introduction of targeted therapies and immunotherapies, and the increasing number of clinical trials evaluating treatment combinations, warrants a careful reexamination of the benefits and harms that different therapeutic approaches have had in lung cancer patients with sATM or gATM. This review will discuss the role of ATM in the pathogenesis of lung cancer, highlighting potential therapeutic approaches to manage ATM-deficient lung cancers.

The PD-1 rs36084323 A > G polymorphism decrease cancer risk in Asian: A meta-analysis

The rs36084323 A > G polymorphism in programmed cell death-1(PD-1) gene has been reported to be associated with cancer risk. However, the results of previous studies were inconsistent. Therefore, we performed a meta-analysis to identify the potential association, by searching the PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and the Chinese CNKI, WANFANG and CBM databases. Data were extracted and odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated to assess the strength of the association. A total of 10 relevant studies involving 4445 cancer cases and 5126 controls were recruited. Overall, the results indicated that the PD-1 rs36084323 A > G polymorphism was not statistically associated with cancer risk. However, stratified analysis revealed that there was a statistically reduced cancer risk in Asians(G vs. A, OR = 0.89, 95%CI:0.81-0.97, P = 0.008, I² = 48.8%; GG vs. AA, OR = 0.79, 95% CI:0.66-0.94, P = 0.008, I² = 48.7%; GG/AG vs. AA, OR = 0.87, 95%CI:0.76-0.98, P = 0.017, I² = 34.9%; GG vs. AG/AA, OR = 0.85, 95%CI:0.75-0.97, P = 0.027, I² = 40%) and in the patients with EOC(AG vs. AA, OR = 0.69, 95%CI:0.54-0.90, P = 0.005, I² = 0%; GG/AG vs. AA, OR = 0.67, 95%CI:0.52-0.85, P = 0.001, I² = 0). Meta-regression showed that ethnicity (P = 0.029) but not cancer types (P = 0.792), source of controls (P = 0.207) or ample size (P = 0.585) were the sources of heterogeneity. This meta-analysis demonstrates the PD-1 rs36084323 A > G polymorphism is associated with decreased cancer risk in Asian, and suggests it could potentially serve as a biomarker to screen high-risk individuals. Large-scale and well-designed case-control studies are needed to enrich the evidence of this result.