Thirty-Day Readmission After Radical Gastrectomy for Gastric Cancer: A Meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Readmission is a commonly accepted parameter to evaluate surgical quality, but previous studies reported inconsistent results in radical gastrectomy. The purpose of our study is to clarify the prevalence, potential causes, and risk factors of 30-d readmission after radical gastrectomy for gastric cancer. METHODS: PubMed and Embase were systematically searched from inception to September 2018 for any possible inclusion. Prevalence, potential causes, and risk factors of 30-d readmission in included studies were extracted using a standardized EXCEL table. The overall 30-d readmission rate was pooled using a random-effects model. Odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals were used to estimate potential risk factors for 30-d readmission. Publication bias was assessed using a funnel plot and statistical tests. RESULTS: A total of nine studies with 16,581 patients were included in the current meta-analysis. The pooled 30-d readmission rate after radical gastrectomy was 8% (95% confidence interval, 0.04-0.12). Nutritional difficulty and surgical site infections were the main causes for 30-d readmission. Cardiovascular comorbidity, total gastrectomy, nutritional risk screening 2002 score ≥3, any complications, laparoscopic gastrectomy, and C-reactive protein on postoperative day 3 ≥12 were strong predictors for 30-d readmission, whereas combined multiorgan resection was a weaker predictor. No significant publication bias was identified through the funnel plot and statistical tests. CONCLUSIONS: The 30-d readmission rate after radical gastrectomy ranges from 4% to 12% and can mainly result from nutritional difficulty and surgical site infections. Nutritional risk screening 2002 score ≥3, cardiovascular comorbidity, total gastrectomy, any complications, and laparoscopic gastrectomy were potential risk factors for 30-d readmission.

Association of STMN1 with survival in solid tumors: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: The prognostic value of Stathmin 1 (STMN1) in malignant solid tumors remains controversial. Thus, we conducted this meta-analysis to summarize the potential value of STMN1 as a biomarker for predicting overall survival in patients with solid tumor. METHODS: We systematically searched eligible studies in PubMed, Web of Science, and EMBASE from the establishment date of these databases to September 2018. Hazard ratio (HR) and its 95% confidence interval (CI) was used to assess the association between STMN1 expression and overall survival. RESULTS: A total of 25 studies with 4625 patients were included in this meta-analysis. Our combined results showed that high STMN1 expression was associated with poor overall survival in solid tumors (HR = 1.85, 95% CI 1.55, 2.21). In general, our subgroup and sensitivity analyses demonstrated that our combined results were stable and reliable. However, from the results of the subgroups we found that high STMN1 expression was not related to overall survival in colorectal cancer and endometrial cancer anymore, suggesting that much caution should be taken to interpret our combined result, and more studies with large sample sizes are required to further explore the prognostic value of STMN1 expression in the specific type of tumors, especially colorectal cancer and endometrial cancer. CONCLUSIONS: STMN1 could serve as a prognostic biomarker and could be developed as a valuable therapeutic target for patients with solid tumors. However, due to the limitations of the present meta-analysis, this conclusion should be taken with caution. Further studies adequately designed are required to confirm our findings.