Cancer Cell International (Aug 2018)

Prognostic significance of galectin-1 expression in patients with cancer: a meta-analysis

  • Rongzu Wu,
  • Tingchun Wu,
  • Kai Wang,
  • Shicheng Luo,
  • Zhen Chen,
  • Min Fan,
  • Dong Xue,
  • Hao Lu,
  • Qianfeng Zhuang,
  • Xianlin Xu

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12935-018-0607-y
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 18, no. 1
pp. 1 – 8

Abstract

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Abstract Background The prognostic significance of galectin-1 (Gal-1) expression in cancerous patients has been assessed for several years while the results remain controversial. Thus, we performed the first comprehensive meta-analysis to evaluate the prognostic value of Gal-1 expression in cancerous patients. Methods We searched Pubmed, Embase and Web of Science to recruit studies on the prognostic impact of Gal-1 expression in cancerous patients. Eighteen studies containing 2674 patients were involved in this meta-analysis until March 30, 2018. Pooled hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence interval (95% CI) were calculated to estimate the effect using random-effects model. Results The pooled results revealed that high Gal-1 expression in cancer tissue associated with a poor OS (HR = 1.79, 95% CI 1.54–2.08, P < 0.001). In the subgroup of tumor type, it’s observed that high Gal-1 expression was significant correlated with poor OS in digestive cancers without heterogeneity (HR = 1.94, 95% CI 1.64–2.30, P < 0.001; fixed-effects model; I2 = 20.1%, P = 0.276). Conclusions Our present meta-analysis indicates that high Gal-1 expression might be a predictive factor of poor prognosis in cancers, particularly in digestive cancers.

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