Long noncoding RNA activated by TGF-β in human cancers: A meta-analysis

Because long non-coding RNA ATB (activated by TGF-β) is dysregulated in many cancers, we performed a meta-analysis to determine its prognostic potential in malignant tumors.We searched electronic databases, including PubMed, Medline, OVID, Cochrane Library and Web of Science from inception until November 15, 2016 and identified eight studies with 818 cancer patients for the meta-analysis. We analyzed the hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) to determine the relationship between lncRNA-ATB expression and overall survival (OS), recurrence -free survival (RFS), disease-free survival (DFS). We also use RevMan5.3 software to calculate odds ratio (ORs) to assess the association between lncRNA-ATB expression and pathological parameters including lymph node metastasis (LNM), distant metastasis (DM) and tumor stage.Our analysis showed that increased lncRNA-ATB expression was associated with OS (HR=2.82, 95% CI:1.98-4.00, P0.00001), DFS (HR=2.75, 95% CI:1.73-4.38, P0.0001), RFS(HR=3.96, 95% CI:2.30-6.81, P0.00001), LNM (OR=4.07, 95% CI 1.74-9.53, P=0.001), DM (OR=3.21, 95% CI 1.06-9.72, P=0.04) and high tumor stage (OR=2.81, 95% 1.78-4.43, P0.0001) in patients with other types of cancers that excluded pancreatic cancer.Meta-analysis demonstrated that increased lncRNA-ATB expression can be a useful prognostic biomarker in human cancer.