Need for clarification of data in the recent meta-analysis about p53 polymorphism and gastric cancer risk

✍ Scribed by Konstantinos P. Economopoulos; Theodoros N. Sergentanis

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: French
• Weight: 121 KB
• Volume: 126
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0020-7136
• DOI: 10.1002/ijc.24876

✦ Synopsis

We read with great interest the recent meta-analysis by Zhou et al., 1 which has reached important conclusions about the association between p53 codon 72 polymorphism and gastric cancer risk.

Nevertheless, close inspection of the data provided by the authors (Table 1) revealed an issue that is worth mentioning. Specifically, the data reported by Zhou et al. 1 for the study by Hamajima et al. 2 do not seem in line with the data provided by Hamajima et al. 2 in their original publication. The numbers reported by Zhou et al. for Arg/Arg, Pro/Arg, Pro/Pro, in cases and controls, respectively, are 54-64-26 and 85-117-39. 1 Interestingly enough, after carefully studying the data presented by Hamajima et al., 2 the frequencies that we have retrieved on the 144 cases and 239 controls (241 minus 2, which had not been genotyped) were 51-70-23 and 90-106-43, respectively. This may imply that the original odds ratio for the study by Hamajima et al. 2 may significantly differ from that calculated by Zhou et al. 1 As a result, it would be valuable if the authors could provide a new, more accurate estimation of the pooled odds ratio after taking into account this remark.

We believe that this remark will contribute to further, more accurate elaboration and substantiation of the original results presented by Zhou et al. 1