The pretreatment neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio may predict prognosis of patients with liver cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: At present, several studies have reported that the pretreatment neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) may be associated with the prognosis of liver cancer. Nevertheless, their conclusions remain controversial. Thus, we performed a meta-analysis of 54 studies to evaluate the prognostic value of NLR. METHOD: Databases including PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science were searched to July 2017. RESULT: A total of 54 studies including 12 979 patients were included in this meta-analysis. Elevated NLR had a close relationship with the overall survival (OS) (HR 1.52; 95% CI 1.39-1.67), recurrence-free survival (RFS) (HR 1.84; 95% CI 1.48-2.30), and disease-free survival (DFS) (HR 1.71; 95% CI 1.39-2.11) of liver cancer, respectively. In addition, elevated NLR was associated with the presence of tumor vascular invasion (OR 2.35; 95% CI 1.93-2.86), multiple tumors (OR 1.38; 95% CI 1.15-1.66), alpha-fetoprotein ≥ 400 ng/mL (OR 1.51; 95% CI 1.15-1.98), presence of HbsAg (+) (OR 0.68; 95% CI 0.51-0.90), and cirrhosis (OR: 0.59; 95% CI 0.44-0.80). CONCLUSION: This meta-analysis indicated that elevated NLR may be an effective and noninvasive indicator for prognosis of patients with liver cancer.

S-1 combined with paclitaxel may benefit advanced gastric cancer: Evidence from a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Gastric cancer, as one of the increasingly common malignancies, has experienced high morbidity throughout many countries at present. Currently, chemotherapy regimen with more efficacy and safety for advanced gastric cancer (AGC) is needed. We aimed to assess the clinical efficacy and safety of S-1 combined with paclitaxel (PTX) for AGC by performing a systematic review and meta-analysis of the published studies. METHOD: All published randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of S-1 combined with PTX for AGC were searched. Studies that included patients with locally advanced or metastases' gastric cancers were included. We searched the databases included Cochrane Library of Clinical Comparative Trials, MEDLINE, Embase, American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting abstracts and China National Knowledge Internet (CNKI) from 2000 to 2018. We searched the database up to January 2018. The first endpoint was overall survival (OS). Other endpoints were progression-free survival (PFS), objective response rate (ORR) and disease control rate (DCR). Safety analyses were also performed. RESULTS: A total of 7 trials (including 1407 patients, 711 patients in intervention group and 696 patients in control group) were included in the present analysis. S-1 combined with PTX significantly improved the OS [HR = 0.78, 95% CI: 0.60-0.97, P = 0.000],PFS [HR = 0.70, 95% CI: 0.55-0.85, P = 0.000], ORR [RR = 1.30, 95%CI: 1.05-1.60, P = 0.017] and DCR [RR = 1.15, 95%CI: 1.04-1.27, P = 0.008] of patients with AGC. The grade 3 or 4 haematological and non-hematologic toxicities were anemia [RR = 1.71, 95% CI: 1.04-2.79, P = 0.03], neutropenia [RR = 1.65, 95% CI: 1.32-2.06, P < 0.0001] and anorexia [RR = 1.66, 95% CI: 1.05-2.64, P = 0.03] respectively. CONCLUSION: S-1 combined with PTX may be a good choice for patients with AGC. S-1 plus PTX experienced more efficacy and safety when compared with S-1 alone or S-1 plus other drugs.

LTBP2 promotes the migration and invasion of gastric cancer cells and predicts poor outcome of patients with gastric cancer.

Latent transforming growth factor-ß-binding protein (LTBP)2 is a member of the fibrillin/LTBP superfamily of extracellular matrix proteins, and has been demonstrated to exhibit tumor-promoting and tumor-suppressive functions in different types of cancer. However, the function of LTBP2 in gastric cancer (GC) remains unknown. The aim of the present study was to investigate the expression and molecular function of LTBP2 in GC, and to evaluate its prognostic value for patients with GC. The results revealed that the expression of LTBP2 was upregulated in GC tissues and cell lines. Increased LTBP2 expression was associated with poor overall survival in patients with early-stage [tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) I/II] and late-stage (TNM III/IV) GC. Furthermore, silencing of LTBP2 effectively suppressed the proliferation, migration, invasion and epithelial-mesenchymal transition in GC cells. These results suggested that LTBP2 may be considered as a potential therapeutic target and a promising prognostic biomarker for human GC.

The prognostic role of pretreatment platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio as predictors in patients with colorectal cancer: a meta-analysis.

AIM: This meta-analysis was designed to analyze and evaluate the prognostic role of preoperative or pretreatment platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC). METHOD: We searched PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database and WanFang Database up to April 2016. RESULTS: A total of 16 studies (n = 5068 participants) were included for this meta-analysis. Elevated PLR has a close relationship with the poor overall survival of CRC, with the pooled hazard ratio being 1.88 (95% CI: 1.50, 2.36; p < 0.00001). CONCLUSION: This meta-analysis indicated that pretreatment PLR may be a cost-effective and noninvasive serum biomarker for poor prognosis for patients with CRC.

The pretreatment thrombocytosis may predict prognosis of patients with colorectal cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

AIM: Recently, several studies have reported that thrombocytosis may be associated with the poor prognosis of colorectal cancer (CRC). Nevertheless, their conclusions were still controversial. Results & methodology: We searched PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library and Web of Science up to April 2016. A total of 30 studies including 9129 patients were included in this meta-analysis. Thrombocytosis had a close relationship with the poor overall survival of CRC compared with normal platelet counts, with the pooled hazard ratios being 1.89 (95% CI: 1.45-2.47; p < 0.00001) and 1.83 (95% CI: 1.33-2.53; p = 0.0002), with univariate and multivariate analyses, respectively. DISCUSSION & CONCLUSION: This meta-analysis indicated that thrombocytosis may be a cost-effective and noninvasive indicator for poor prognosis of patients with CRC, especially for overall survival.