DAPK Promoter Methylation and Bladder Cancer Risk: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Methylation of tumor suppressor gene promoter leads to transcription inactivation and is involved in tumorigenesis. Several studies demonstrate a potential association between the Death-Associated Protein Kinase (DAPK) gene promoter methylation and bladder cancer risk, tumor stage and histological grade. Due to inconsistent results of these studies, we performed this meta-analysis to ascertain the association.Studies were retrieved from the PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and the Cochrane Library databases. Study selection and data extraction were executed by two reviewers independently. Meta-analysis was performed using Stata 13.0 and Review Manager 5.3 software.A total of 21 articles involving 15 case control and 8 case series studies were included in this meta-analysis. DAPK promoter methylation was associated with bladder cancer risk (OR: 5.81; 95%CI = 3.83–8.82, P