Abstract
BackgroundMicroRNA-221 (miR-221) has been shown to play an important role in cancer prognosis. In order to evaluate the predictive value of miR-221, we compiled the evidence from 20 eligible studies to perform a meta-analysis.DesignAll of relevant studies were identified by searching PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science, and were assessed by further quality evaluation. Pooled hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of total and stratified analyses, for overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS), were calculated to investigate the association between high miR-221 expression and cancer prognosis.ResultsWe found that high miR-221 expression can predict a poor OS in malignant tumors (pooled HR = 1.55, P = 0.017) but has no significant association with RFS (pooled HR = 1.02, P = 0.942). Further in stratified analyses, high miR-221 expression was significantly associated with a poor OS in Asians (pooled HR = 2.04, P = 0.010) or serum/ plasma subgroup (pooled HR = 2.28, P<0.001), and even showed significantly poor OS (pooled HR = 1.80, P<0.001) and RFS (pooled HR = 2.43, P = 0.010) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) subgroup, but was correlated to a favorable RFS in prostate cancer subgroup (pooled HR = 0.51, P = 0.004).ConclusionsOur findings demonstrate that miR-221 is more suitable to predict cancer prognosis in Asians, and it is a promising prognostic biomarker for HCC. The detection of miR-221 in serum or plasma samples may make it become an effective method for monitoring patients' prognosis and assessing therapeutic efficacy in the future.
Highlights
Since the discovery of microRNAs in 1993 [1], emerging studies have suggested that miRNAs are potential regulators of a wide range of biological processes including development, cell differentiation, proliferation, and apoptosis [2,3,4,5,6,7,8]
We found that high miR-221 expression can predict a poor overall survival (OS) in malignant tumors but has no significant association with recurrence-free survival (RFS)
High miR-221 expression was significantly associated with a poor OS in Asians or serum/ plasma subgroup, and even showed significantly poor OS and RFS in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) subgroup, but was correlated to a favorable RFS in prostate cancer subgroup
Summary
Since the discovery of microRNAs (miRNAs) in 1993 [1], emerging studies have suggested that miRNAs are potential regulators of a wide range of biological processes including development, cell differentiation, proliferation, and apoptosis [2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. MicroRNA-221 (miR-221), encoded on human chromosome X, is overexpressed in many aggressive carcinomas [14,15,16,17]. Studies have discovered that miR-221 is significantly up-regulated in cell lines [23,24,25,26], plasma or serum [27,28,29,30,31,32], and tissues [33,34,35,36,37,38,39] of numerous human malignancies. In order to evaluate the predictive value of miR-221, we compiled the evidence from 20 eligible studies to perform a meta-analysis
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