Prognostic significance of osteopontin expression in gastric cancer: a meta-analysis

Background: Accumulated studies have exploited the association between osteopontin (OPN) expression and survival of patients with gastric cancer (GC), however, the results were controversial. Thus, we performed a meta-analysis, aiming to investigate the prognostic role of OPN for GC patients and to explore the association between OPN and clinicalpathological features of GC.

Results: A total of ten studies involving 1775 patients were included in final meta-analysis. Of the included studies, nine were conducted on Asian patients and one was performed on Caucasian patients. Regarding OPN detection, immunohistochemistry (IHC) was used on tissue specimens in eight studies and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used on plasma specimens in two studies. The pooled data showed that high OPN expression was correlated with poor OS (HR = 1.59, 95% CI: 1.15-2.22, p = 0.006). Subgroup analyses demonstrated that OPN had enhanced prognostic value for Asian patients (HR = 1.64, 95% CI = 1.11-2.41, p = 0.012) and for patients receiving surgical resection (HR = 1.6, 95% CI = 1.04-2.48, p = 0.034). In addition, the results also showed that elevated OPN expression was associated with lymph node metastasis, TNM stage, depth of invasion, tumor size and distant metastasis in GC.

Methods: Relevant studies were retrieved through PubMed, Embase and Web of Science. Combined hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated to assess the association between OPN and overall survival (OS). Subgroup analyses and publication bias were also conducted.

Conclusions: OPN overexpression was correlated with poor OS and clinical features reflecting high aggressiveness in patients with GC. OPN was a promising prognostic biomarker for GC.