Prognostic value of endocan expression in cancers: evidence from meta-analysis

Abstract

Xing Huang,1,* Chen Chen,2,* Xin Wang,3,* Jing-yuan Zhang,1 Bin-hui Ren,3,4 Da-wei Ma,1 Lei Xia,1 Xin-yu Xu,1 Lin Xu3,4 1Department of Pathology, Nanjing Medical University Affiliated Cancer Hospital, 2Second Clinical College of Nanjing Medical University, 3Department of Thoracic Surgery, Nanjing Medical University Affiliated Cancer Hospital, 4Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Molecular and Translational Cancer Research, Nanjing Medical University Affiliated Cancer Hospital, Nanjing, People’s Republic of China *These authors contributed equally to this work Abstract: Endocan is a 50 kDa dermatan sulfate proteoglycan. Numerous previous studies have indicated that endocan might be an attractive prognostic tumor biomarker. However, the results of different studies are inconsistent. We conducted a meta-analysis to explore the association between endocan expression and cancer prognosis. A systematic, comprehensive search of the PubMed, Embase, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure databases was performed. Expression of endocan and its association with overall survival were evaluated by pooled hazard ratios (HRs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs). In total, 15 eligible studies of 1,464 patients were finally included in this meta-analysis. A significant association was found between elevated endocan expression and poorer overall survival (pooled HR: 2.48, 95% CI: 2.12–2.90, P<0.001). In the cancer-type subgroup, significant associations were detected for gastrointestinal (HR: 2.27, 95% CI: 1.77–2.91, P<0.001) and hepatocellular (HR: 2.61, 95% CI: 1.96–3.48, P<0.001) carcinoma. Our results demonstrate that endocan could be useful to exploit as a novel prognostic biomarker for patients with cancer. Keywords: endocan, ESM-1, biomarker, cancer, prognosis, meta-analysis 

Keywords

• endocan
• ESM-1
• biomarker
• cancer
• prognosis
• meta-analysis