Prognostic significance of long non-coding RNA AFAP1-AS1 in human gastrointestinal cancers: a meta-analysis

Background: AFAP1-AS1, as a newly discovered lncRNA, is aberrantly expressed in gastrointestinal can-cer tissues and is related with clinical progression and prognosis. This meta-analysis was performed to sys-tematically assess the clinical value of AFAP1-AS1 in gastrointestinal cancers. Methods: A systematic search was performed in Pubmed, Web of Science, Springer together with Wanfang database, and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) until August 15, 2017. We collected relevant publications to explore the prognostic significance of AFAP1-AS1 in gastrointestinal cancers. Results: A total of 831 patients from 10 studies were included in the meta-analysis. The pooled results showed that there was a significant association between high AFAP1-AS1 expression and worse overall survival (OS) (HR = 1.82, 95% CI = 1.44-2.19, p < 0.001), shorter disease-free survival (DFS) (HR = 2.21; 95% CI = 1.08-3.34; p < 0.001), and poorer progression-free survival (PFS) (HR = 1.73; 95% CI = 1.11-2.35; p < 0.001) in gastrointestinal cancers. For OS, subgroup analyses were also conducted to confirm the prognostic value of AFAP1-AS1. Additionally, high AFAP1-AS1 expression was correlated with unfavorable features regarding lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, and clinical stage in gastrointestinal cancers. Conclusions: AFAP1-AS1 might serve as a novel prognostic biomarker for patients with gastrointestinal cancers.