CASP8 and rectal cancer: Table 2 lists the main characteristics of these studies. Among these publications, two were conducted in Caucasian descent [20], [21], and four were conducted in Asian descent [8], [19], [22], [23]. Three were population–based studies [8], [21], [22] and three were hospital–based studies [19], [20], [23]. Two of these studies [19], [22] presented CASP8 −652 6N ins/del polymorphism genotype distributions according to cancer location (colon cancer and rectal cancer). The cases were histologically or pathologically confirmed as CRC in four studies [19], [20], [22], [23].