Nuclear expression and/or reduced membranous expression of ß-catenin correlate with poor prognosis in colorectal carcinoma: A meta-analysis.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The differential subcellular localizations of ß-catenin (including membrane, cytoplasm, and nucleus) play different roles in the progression of colorectal cancer (CRC). However, the correlation between each subcellular localization of ß-catenin and the prognosis of CRC patients remains undetermined. METHODS: Systematic strategies were applied to search for eligible published studies in the PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science databases. The correlation between each subcellular localizations of ß-catenin expression and patients' clinicopathological features or prognosis was analyzed. RESULTS: Finally, this meta-analysis, including 6238 cases from 34 studies, revealed that ß-catenin overexpression in the nucleus (HR 1.50[95% CI 1.08-2.10]) or reduced expression of ß-catenin in the membrane (HR 1.33[95% CI 1.15-1.54]) significantly correlated with lower 5-year overall survival (OS). Conversely, overexpression of ß-catenin in the cytoplasm (HR 1.00[95% CI 0.85-1.18]) did not show significant association with 5-year OS. CONCLUSION: This study suggested that ß-catenin overexpression in the nucleus or reduced expression in the membrane, but not its overexpression in cytoplasm, could serve as a valuable prognostic predictor for CRC. However, additional large and well-designed prospective studies are required to verify our results.