Association of Elevated Yes-Associated Protein Expression with Gastric Cancer and Its Clinicopathological Features: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate the difference of YAP-positive expression between GC and adjacent tissues, as well as the association of elevated YAP expression with clinicopathological features of GC. Methods: PubMed, Embase, Web of Science databases and the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) were searched from inception up to December 2018. The pooled ORs and corresponding 95% CIs were used to assess the strength of association. The heterogeneity among eligible studies was evaluated by the Q-test and I 2 values. The sensitivity analysis was performed by sequential omission of individual studies. Moreover, Begg's test and Egger's test were used to evaluate publication bias. Results: A total of 2229 patients from 16 studies were included in this meta-analysis. The results showed that positive YAP expression was closely correlated with GC but not adjacent non-tumor tissue (OR = 8.08, 95% CI = 4.41-14.80). Additionally, YAP overexpression was found to be associated with more advanced TNM stage (OR = 2.68, 95% CI = 1.61-4.48), deeper invasion depth (OR = 2.05, 95% CI = 1.32-3.19), and lymph node metastasis (OR = 1.95, 95% CI = 1.29-2.96). No significant correlation was observed between YAP overexpression and degree of differentiation (OR = 1.17, 95% CI = 0.63-2.16), as well as gender of patients (OR = 1.12, 95% CI = 0.91-1.37) or tumor size (OR = 1.11, 95% CI = 0.82-1.49) of gastric cancer. Conclusions: This meta-analysis demonstrated that YAP might be a promising diagnostic marker and even a therapeutic target for gastric cancer.