Aberrant SNHG expression predicts poor prognosis in esophageal cancer using meta-analysis and bioinformatics analysis

BackgroundSmall nucleolar RNA host gene (SNHG) family were reported involved in various biological processes and may be used as a promising prognostic marker in esophageal cancer (EC). A meta-analysis was performed to investigate the relationship between SNHG expression and prognosis of EC in this study.MethodsRelevant databases were browsed to obtain suitable publications. Hazard ratio (HR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) were extracted to explore the association between SNHG expression and EC prognosis. Odds ratio (OR) with 95%CI were extracted to assess the association between SNHG expression and other clinicopathological parameters. Sensitivity analysis and publication bias were performed to explore the reliability and robustness of the results. Bio-informatics has been explored in order to confirm our conclusions more comprehensively.Results16 studies comprising 1229 patients were enrolled. The results showed that increasing SNHG expression indicated worse overall survival (HR: 1.392, 95%CI = 0.876-1.908). SNHG2, SNHG5, and SNHG12 were down-regulated, while other SNHGs were up-regulated in EC. In populations with low expression of SNHG2, SNHG5, and SNHG12, increasing SNHG expression predicted a favorable cancer prognosis (HR: 0.511, 95%CI = 0.322-0.700). Conversely, in populations with high expression of other SNHGs, SNHG expression indicated poor prognosis (OR: 2.340, 95%CI = 1.744-2.936). Elevated SNHG expression also implied advanced TNM stage (OR 1.578, 95%CI = 1.273-1.956) and lymph node metastasis (OR: 1.533, 95%CI = 1.205-1.950).ConclusionIncreased expression of SNHG2, SNHG5, and SNHG12, and decreased expression of other SNHGs tended to have a favorable prognosis in patients with EC. These findings suggest that SNHG may serve as a prognostic marker and therapeutic target for EC.