Abstract
Purpose: Insulin-like growth factor II mRNA-binding protein 3 (IMP3) is an oncofetal protein expressed in diverse malignancies. This study aimed to investigate the prognostic value of IMP3 in urological cancers. Methods: Eligible studies were sought in PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Collaboration and Wanfang databases. Pooled hazard ratios (HRs) with their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to assess the prognostic value of IMP3 in patients with urological cancers. Results: Eight studies including 2,219 patients were enrolled in this meta-analysis. The pooled results showed that IMP3 expression was an indicator of poorer prognosis in patients with urological cancers in terms of overall survival (OS) (HR 2.19, 95% CI 1.35-3.55), disease-specific survival (DSS) (HR 2.10, 95% CI 1.53-2.89), disease-free survival (DFS) (HR 1.49, 95% CI 1.18-1.87) and metastasis-free survival (MFS) (HR 3.80, 95% CI 2.27-6.34). Subgroup analyses revealed that IMP3 was significantly correlated with poorer prognosis in patients with kidney cancer or urothelial cancer in terms of OS (HR 2.52; 95% CI 1.55-4.10), DSS (HR 2.11; 95% CI 1.51-2.95), DFS (HR 2.01; 95% CI 1.40-2.88) and MFS (HR 3.80; 95% CI 2.27-6.34), whereas this association was not found in patients with prostate cancer (OS, HR 1.09, 95% CI 0.45-2.63; DSS, HR 2.06, 95% CI 0.73-5.80; DFS, HR 1.20, 95% CI 0.88-1.62). Conclusions: IMP3 expression might be an indicator of poor prognosis in patients with kidney cancer or urothelial cancer. Further large prospective and well- designed studies utilizing better IMP3 expression assessment processes, are needed to confirm these results especially in patients with prostate cancer.
Highlights
Cancer is a major public health problem around the world
A total of 14 studies potentially relevant citations were retrieved after the initial database searches. 2 studies were excluded from the analysis after the initial screening based on the abstracts or titles, leaving 12 studies available for full-text review
The basic characteristics of the 8 included studies were summarized in Table 2. 1 study was conducted in Korea, 1 study was conducted in Switzerland, 2 studies were conducted in Germany, and 3 studies were conducted in America, and the other one was conducted by the Upper
Summary
Cancer is a major public health problem around the world. It is currently the second leading cause of death in the United States, and is expected to surpass heart diseases as the leading cause of death in the few years [1]. According to the GLOBOCAN 2008 estimates, about 386,300 new cases and 150,200 deaths from bladder cancer, and 903,500 new cases and 258,400 deaths from prostate cancer occurred in 2008 worldwide [2]. The prognosis of patients with kidney cancers and bladder cancers remains unpleasant, for which 5-year survival is 74% and 79%, respectively [1]. It is essential to identify biological markers for diagnosing urological cancers in their early stages and predicting the prognosis such as recurrence and metastasis after treatments
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