High expression of AFAP1-AS1 is associated with poor prognosis of digestive system cancers: A meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Actin filament-associated protein 1 antisense RNA 1 (AFAP1-AS1) is associated with prognosis in many cancers. The aim of this study was to systematically evaluate the potential correlation between AFAP1-AS1 and the prognosis of digestive system cancers (DSC). METHODS: EMBASE, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, PubMed, Wanfang Data (Chinese), and CNKI (Chinese) were comprehensively searched for literature published from the establishment of the database to September 2021.All case-control studies that met the inclusion criteria were retrieved; additionally manual retrieval and literature tracing was performed. After extracting the relevant data, Revman 5.3.5 software was used for meta-analysis. RESULTS: Eighteen studies were included in analyses, high expression of AFAP1-AS1 was significantly correlated with poor prognosis in DSC, including overall survival (HR = 1.93, 95% CI: 1.72-2.17, P < .001) and disease-free survival/progression-free survival (HR = 1.87, 95% CI: 1.56-2.26, P < .001). In addition, the expression of AFAP1-AS1 was significantly correlated with tumor size, tumor stage, and lymph node metastasis. CONCLUSION: High expression of AFAP1-AS1 was associated with poor prognosis in DSC. Therefore, it could be used as a potential marker for evaluating prognosis in DSC.

Clinicopathological and prognostic value of lncRNAs expression in gastric cancer: A field synopsis of observational studies and databases validation.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to evaluate existing evidence in the field of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and prognosis of gastric cancer. METHODS: A comprehensive literature search was performed through the electronic database. The combined hazard ratios (HRs) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), or progression free survival (PFS) were calculated to assess the strength of the association. Kaplan-Meier (KM) plotter was used to verify lncRNA HOX transcript antisense RNA (HOTAIR) expression and OS. RESULTS: Overall, a significant correlation between high lncRNAs expression and poor OS was explored in patients with gastric cancer (HR = 1.78, P < .001). Subgroup analysis based on statistical methods indicated the high expression of lncRNAs in log-rank (HR = 1.87, P < .001) and multivariate analysis (HR = 1.71, P < .001) were all significantly correlated with the poor OS. Clinicopathological parameters analysis showed the lncRNA expression were significantly associated prognosis, including TNM stage, tumor size, pathological differentiation, lymph nodes metastasis, distance metastasis, invasion depth and Lauren's classification. It was consistent with the verification results of bioinformatics database for lncRNA HOTAIR (P < .001). CONCLUSION: Our study confirmed the expression of lncRNAs and clinicopathological features may serve as effective indicators of prognosis in patients with gastric cancer.