We hypothesized that genetic variants in methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (<i>MTHFR</i>), a key enzyme of folate metabolism, would affect the prognosis of prostate cancer.
These results suggest that the MTHFRC677T polymorphism does not contribute to the risk of prostate cancer from currently available evidence in populations overall and Caucasians.
Overall, no statistical relationship was found with any MTHFRC677T genetic model associated with susceptibility to PCa (TT versus CC, OR=0.83, 95% CI 0.68-1.02, P=0.07; CT versus CC, OR=0.95, 95% CI 0.85-1.07, P=0.43; Dominant, OR=0.93, 95% CI 0.83-1.03, P=0.17; Recessive, OR=0.84, 95% CI 0.70-1.02, P=0.09.).
Compared with the MTHFR 677CC genotype, the CT and TT variants, both of which were related to lower folate concentrations, were associated with reduced prostate cancer risk [OR 0.82 (0.72-0.94) and OR 0.78 (0.64-0.94), respectively].
This meta-analysis supports that the C677T of the MTHFR gene is a low-penetrance susceptibility gene for prostate cancer, and might provide protective effects against prostate cancer risk.
In this study, it has been observed that C677T polymorphism of the MTHFR gene produces no statistically significant difference for T allele frequency and the genotype frequency in prostate cancer patients and male controls with benign prostate hyperplasia not having prostate cancer, whereas it has been observed that A1298C polymorphism produces a statistically significant difference for C allele frequency in prostate cancer patients and controls and that it also produces a statistically marginal significance for genotype frequencies.
Our data indicate that the C677TMTHFR polymorphism does not significantly contribute to the inherited genetic susceptibility to breast and prostate cancer, while we show some evidence for possible genetic contribution of this polymorphism to the development of head and neck carcinoma.
We found that the MTHFR 677C-->T polymorphism is not likely to have a major role in the development of prostate cancer, although it may possibly increase the risk in combination with high plasma folate levels.