A meta-analysis of 33 studies, with 6192 cases in a systematic review, has recently reported the significance of IL-8 genetic polymorphism IL-8-251T>A (rs4073) as a risk factor in gastric cancer which was stratified based on ethnicity with such an association observed in Korean, Chinese and Brazilian patients though not among Japanese patients [75]. The gene discussed is CXCL8; the disease is gastric cancer.