Increased osteopontin protein expression may be correlated with poor prognosis in non-small-cell lung cancer: A meta analysis

Aim: The present meta-analysis investigates the prognostic value of osteopontin (OPN) expression in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Materials and Methods: The Web of Science (1945 similar to 2013), the Cochrane Library Database (Issue 12, 2013), PubMed (1966 similar to 2013), EMBASE (1980 similar to 2013), CINAHL (1982 similar to 2013), and the Chinese Biomedical Database (CBM) (1982 similar to 2013) were searched, without language restrictions, to retrieve studies related to OPN and NSCLC. We compiled carefully selected data and a meta-analysis was conducted using STATA software (Version 12.0, Stata Corporation, and College Station, Texas USA). Hazard ratios (HR) with corresponding 95% confidence interval (95%CI) were calculated. Results: Ten clinical cohort studies were selected for statistical analysis, representing a total of 1,133 NSCLC patients. The main findings of our meta-analysis are that patients who were OPN-positive had significantly shorter overall survival than OPN-negative patients (HR = 1.47, 95% CI = 1.15 similar to 1.79, P < 0.001). Ethnicity-stratified analysis revealed a significant correlation between expression levels of OPN and poor prognosis of NSCLC patients among both Caucasians and Asians (Asians: HR = 1.53, 95% CI = 0.95 similar to 2.11, P < 0.001; Caucasians: HR = 1.56, 95% CI = 1.08 similar to 2.03, P < 0.001; respectively). Conclusions: The present meta-analysis is consistent with the hypothesis that increased expression of OPN protein may be significantly associated with poor prognosis in patients with NSCLC.