Abstract
Growing evidence from recent studies has revealed that microRNA-203 (miR-203) might be an attractive prognostic biomarker for cancer. But controversy still remains. The aim of this meta-analysis was to summarize available evidences and clarify the preliminary predictive value of miR-203 for prognosis in cancer patients. Eligible studies were identified through multiple research strategies in PubMed, EMBASE and Web of Science up to October 2015. Key statistics such as pooled hazard ratios (HR) with 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) were utilized to calculate patient survival. 13 eligible studies with 1600 patients were ultimately enrolled in this meta-analysis. Our results failed to show a significant relation between upregulated miR-203 expression and a favorable overall survival (OS) (HR 1.00, 95 % CI 0.65–1.36) in a random effect model. However, in subgroup analysis, we found that high expression of miR-203 was significantly associated with poor OS in Caucasian patients (HR 1.31, 95 % CI 1.06–1.55). In contrast, for Asian patients, over-expression of miR-203 was an independent prognostic factor for better and OS (HR 0.59, 95 % CI 0.22–0.96). It also suggested that cancer types and miRNA assay method were significant associated with prognosis. The over-expression of miR-203 was effectively predictive of worse prognosis in breast cancer (HR 6.35, 95 % CI 1.34–11.36), pancreatic cancer (HR 1.19, 95 % CI 1.08–1.30), ependymoma (HR 1.35, 95 % CI 1.10–1.61), but for glioma patients, elevated miR-203 is a potential biomarker for predicting better progression of cancer (HR 0.26, 95 % CI −0.02 to 0.54). Besides, for direct miRNA profiling studies, over-expression of miR-203 was an independent prognostic factor for worse OS (HR 6.35, 95 % CI 1.34–11.36). This meta-analysis indicated that ethnicity, tumor type and miRNA assay method mainly contributed to heterogeneity. Considering the insufficient evidence, further relevant studies are warranted.
Highlights
MicroRNAs represent a class of non-coding, highly conserved single stranded RNAs of approximately 22 nucleotides (Fabian and Sonenberg 2012; Guo et al 2016; Bartel 2004; Carthew and Sontheimer 2009)
13 studies were considered eligible for the analysis, among the 13 included studies, 3 that evaluated pancreatic cancer (Ikenaga et al.2010; Greither et al 2010; Schultz et al 2012), 2 that evaluated hepatocellular carcinoma
Data extraction and quality assessment For each included study, the following data elements was collected: trial features; characteristics of the participants; detection method; follow-up time and data needed for prognosis meta-analysis [e.g., hazard ratios (HR), overall survival (OS) along with their 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) and P values]
Summary
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) represent a class of non-coding, highly conserved single stranded RNAs of approximately 22 nucleotides (Fabian and Sonenberg 2012; Guo et al 2016; Bartel 2004; Carthew and Sontheimer 2009). These tiny regulators mainly function via post-transcriptionally regulating gene expression at the posttranscriptional level (He and Hannon 2004; Garzon et al 2006; Rolle et al 2016). Previous studies have showed that miR-203 exhibited aberrant expression in multiple malignancies compared with their
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