OncoTargets and Therapy (Sep 2018)

Prognostic significance of NANOG expression in solid tumors: a meta-analysis

  • Zhao LQ,
  • Liu J,
  • Chen S,
  • Fang C,
  • Zhang XQ,
  • Luo ZB

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 11
pp. 5515 – 5526

Abstract

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Lingqiong Zhao,1,* Jie Liu,2,* Shu Chen,1 Chun Fang,1 Xianquan Zhang,1 Zhibin Luo3 1Department of Oncology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400010, China; 2Department of Cardiology, The Affiliated Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College, Sichuan 637000, China; 3Department of Oncology, Chongqing General Hospital, Chongqing 400010, China *These authors contributed equally to this work Purpose: NANOG is a tumor marker and indicates poor prognosis in various neoplasms; however, the evidence is controversial. This meta-analysis investigated the association of NANOG expression and clinicopathological features, and it impact on survival of patients with malignant tumors.Methods: Studies published through May 31, 2018 were retrieved from PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure. Two researchers independently screened the content and quality of studies and extracted data. Correlations of NANOG expression, clinicopathological variables, and survival were analyzed and the combined odds ratios (ORs) and hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were calculated.Results: Thirty-three articles including 35 data sets of 3,959 patients were analyzed. Overall, elevated NANOG expression was associated with poor overall survival (HR = 2.19; 95% CI: 1.87–2.58, P<0.001) and poor disease-free survival (HR = 2.21, 95% CI: 1.54–3.18, P<0.001). Subgroup analysis found that NANOG expression was associated with worse overall survival in non–small cell lung (HR = 1.87; 95% CI: 1.26–2.76, P = 0.002), head and neck (HR = 2.29; 95% CI: 1.75–3.02, P<0.001), and digestive system (HR = 2.38; 95% CI: 1.95–2.91, P<0.001) cancers. Moreover, we found that high NANOG expression was associated with poor tumor differentiation (OR = 2.63; 95% CI: 1.59–4.55, P = 0.001), lymph node metastasis (OR = 2.59; 95% CI: 1.50–4.47, P = 0.001), advanced TNM stage (OR = 2.22; 95% CI: 1.42–3.45, P<0.001), and T stage (OR = 0.44; 95% CI: 0.20–0.93, P = 0.031).Conclusion: The evidence supports NANOG as a tumor biomarker to guide clinical management and indicate prognosis. Additional studies are needed to further validate these results. Keywords: NANOG, cancer, prognosis, meta-analysis

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