Expression and significance of TWIST, a zinc finger transcription factor, in laryngeal carcinoma among Chinese population: a meta-analysis

TWIST, an epithelial-mesenchymal transition inducer, has been implicated in the progression of a variety of cancers. Published evidence concerning the association of TWIST expression with laryngeal carcinoma risk has generated inconclusive results. Thus, we aimed to conduct a meta-analysis to address this controversy. A meta-analysis assessing the expression of TWIST in laryngeal cancer was conducted. Eligible studies for the period up to Jun 2015 were identified. After rigorous screening, a total of four studies met the inclusion criteria and they happened to be conducted on Chinese population. The results showed that TWIST positive expression rate in laryngeal cancer tissues was higher than that in normal tissues (OR=8.91, 95% CI=4.55-17.46). TWIST expression might have a correlation with low differentiation (OR=5.40, 95% CI=2.02-14.44), advanced clinical stage (OR=6.52, 95% CI=3.61-11.78), presence of lymph node metastasis (OR=9.10, 95% CI=4.26-19.41) and distant metastasis (OR=8.12, 95% CI=2.10-31.42), but not age and gender. The data suggested that TWIST might play critical roles in the development of laryngeal carcinoma. Further well-designed studies are warranted to get a more conclusive result.