Prognostic significance of long non-coding RNAAFAP1-AS1 in human gastrointestinalcancers: a meta-analysis

摘要

Background: AFAP1-AS1, as a newly discovered lncRNA, is aberrantly expressed in gastrointestinal cancertissues and is related with clinical progression and prognosis. This meta-analysis was performed to systematicallyassess the clinical value of AFAP1-AS1 in gastrointestinal cancers. Methods: A systematic searchwas performed in Pubmed, Web of Science, Springer together with Wanfang database, and Chinese NationalKnowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) until August 15, 2017. We collected relevant publications to explore the prognosticsignificance of AFAP1-AS1 in gastrointestinal cancers. Results: A total of 831 patients from 10 studies were includedin the meta-analysis. The pooled results showed that there was a significant association between high AFAP1-AS1 expression and worse overall survival (OS) (HR = 1.82, 95% CI = 1.44-2.19, p 0.001), shorter disease-freesurvival (DFS) (HR = 2.21; 95% CI = 1.08-3.34; p 0.001), and poorer progression-free survival (PFS) (HR =1.73; 95% CI = 1.11-2.35; p 0.001) in gastrointestinal cancers. For OS, subgroup analyses were also conductedto confirm the prognostic value of AFAP1-AS1. Additionally, high AFAP1-AS1 expression was correlated withunfavorable features regarding lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, and clinical stage in gastrointestinalcancers. Conclusions: AFAP1-AS1 might serve as a novel prognostic biomarker for patients with gastrointestinalcancers.