Meta-analysis for cyclin E in lung cancer survival

Background: To assess the prognosis value of cyclin E expression in survival of patients with lung cancer (LC), we performed a systematic review of the literature with meta-analysis.

Methods: Electronic databases were used to identify published studies before August 2011. Pooled hazard ratio (HR) with 95% confidence interval (95% CI) was used to estimate the strength of the association of cyclin E expression with survival of LC patients. Heterogeneity and publication bias were also assessed.

Results: Fourteen studies (2606 cases) were eligible and subjected to analysis. Cyclin E over-expression was found to be a strong predictor of poor prognosis in LC patients (HR: 1.38, 95% CI: 1.07-1.79; P=0.014). When only non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) was considered, the combined HR was 1.53 (95% CI: 1.19-1.97, P=0.001). A significant association was also evident when the analysis was limited to studies involving adenocarcinoma (AD), but not squamous cell carcinoma (SQ). Publication bias was absent. Sensitivity analyses suggested that the summary statistics obtained should approximate the actual average.