The association of glutathione S-transferase polymorphisms in patients with osteosarcoma: evidence from a meta-analysis.

Osteosarcoma is a life-threatening malignancy that often occurs in teenagers. Numerous studies have reported glutathione S-transferase polymorphisms are associated with osteosarcoma, but the results are inconclusive, partially because the sample size in each of published studies is relatively small. Therefore, we performed a meta-analysis of the published studies to estimate the association more accurately. To preciously examine the association between the glutathione S-transferase polymorphisms and osteosarcoma, we undertook a meta-analysis of six case-control studies. The association between the glutathione S-transferase polymorphisms and osteosarcoma risk was assessed by odds ratios together with their 95% confidence intervals using a fixed-effects model or random-effects model. In addition, hazard ratio was used to measure the relationship between glutathione S-transferase polymorphisms and prognosis in patients with osteosarcoma. We found that there was significant association between the polymorphisms in GSTT1 or GSTM3 (AA versus BB) and osteosarcoma risk. In addition, there is no evidence of association on GSTM1, GSTT1, GSTP1 (IIe/IIe versus IIe/Val) or GSTP1 (IIe/IIe versus Val/Val) polymorphisms with prognosis in osteosarcoma. In conclusion, the GSTT1 and GSTM3 polymorphisms might influence osteosarcoma risk.