Clinicopathological and prognostic significance of Nanog expression in non-small cell lung cancer: a meta-analysis

Background: Nanog has been found to be overexpressed in various cancers. However, the association between Nanog expression and prognosis or clinicopathological features is still controversial. Therefore, this meta-analysis was conducted to identify whether Nanog expression was associated with prognosis or clinicopathological characteristics in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods: We searched Embase, PubMed, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure database (CNKI), and the Wanfang database for articles. Pooled hazard ratios (HR), odds ratios (OR), and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) were utilized to evaluate the relationship between Nanog expression and prognosis or clinicopathological characteristics in NSCLC. Results: The results showed that high expression of Nanog was significantly associated with poor overall survival (OS) (HR=1.95, 95% CI: 1.38-2.75, P=0.000). Additionally, high Nanog expression was significantly correlated with tumor differentiation (OR=3.18, 95% CI: 1.69-5.98, P=0.000) and TNM stage (OR=1.78, 95% CI: 1.28-2.47, P=0.001). However, no significant relationship was observed between Nanog expression and other clinicopathological features, including gender (OR=0.95, 95% CI: 0.69-1.33, P=0.783), age (OR=0.78, 95% CI: 0.57-1.07, P=0.119), tumor size (OR=0.87, 95% CI: 0.26-2.95, P=0.824), and lymph node metastasis (OR=1.29, 95% CI: 0.94-1.77, P=0.121). Conclusion: High Nanog expression was associated with poor prognosis in patients with NSCLC, and Nanog may serve as a prognostic predictor in NSCLC.