1. Alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) influences survival in soft tissue sarcomas: a systematic review with meta-analysis
- Author
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Antonio Pea, Alessia Nottegar, Nicola Veronese, Camilla Pilati, Lee Smith, Liang Cheng, Jacopo Demurtas, Rita T. Lawlor, Matteo Fassan, Claudio Luchini, Lawlor, R.T., Veronese, N., Pea, A., Nottegar, A., Smith, L., Pilati, C., Demurtas, J., Fassan, M., Cheng, L., and Luchini, C.
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,Oncology ,Cancer Research ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Multivariate analysis ,Mesenchymal ,Survival ,ALT ,lcsh:RC254-282 ,digestive system ,Risk Assessment ,not known ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Surgical oncology ,Internal medicine ,Genetics ,medicine ,Humans ,Clinical significance ,ATR ,ATRX ,Prognosis ,Sarcoma ,Proportional Hazards Models ,business.industry ,Hazard ratio ,Soft tissue ,Telomere Homeostasis ,Middle Aged ,Telomere ,medicine.disease ,lcsh:Neoplasms. Tumors. Oncology. Including cancer and carcinogens ,Survival Analysis ,digestive system diseases ,3. Good health ,030104 developmental biology ,030220 oncology & carcinogenesis ,Relative risk ,Meta-analysis ,business ,Research Article - Abstract
Background Alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) is a telomerase-independent mechanism used by a broad range of neoplasms to maintain telomere length, permitting uncontrolled replication during their progression. ALT has been described in different types of sarcoma, but a comprehensive analysis of its clinical significance is still lacking. Therefore, we provide here the first meta-analysis on this topic. Methods We searched SCOPUS and PubMed through July 2018 to identify all studies that investigated the prognostic role of ALT in sarcomas. We considered the risk of death (risk ratio, RR) calculated as the number of death vs. total participants during follow-up in ALT+ versus ALT- patients as the primary outcome. The secondary outcome was the hazard ratio (HR), adjusted for the maximum number of covariates available, using ALT- patients as reference. Results Eight articles comprising a total of 551 patients with sarcomas (226 ALT+ and 325 ALT-) were selected. The ALT+ group showed a higher mitotic count and a higher tumor grade compared with the ALT- group (p
- Published
- 2019