Correlation between p-STAT3 overexpression and prognosis in lung cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

ObjectivePrevious studies have shown the correlation between p-STAT3 overexpression and prognosis in a variety of human tumors. However, their correlation in lung cancer remains controversial. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to explore the correlation between p-STAT3 overexpression and prognosis in lung cancer patients.MethodsWe searched PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, CNKI, VIP, and WanFang Data to identify relevant studies. Two reviewers independently screened the literature search results, extracted data, and assessed the methodological quality of the included studies. Then, meta-analysis was performed by using Review Manager 5.3 and STATA 14 software. A random-effect model was employed to evaluate all related pooled results. Statistical heterogeneity of each study was assessed by I2. Publication bias was determined by funnel plot and the Begg’s or Egger’s tests.ResultsEventually, 13 studies were included in present meta-analysis. Among these 13 studies, 8 studies were associated with the overall survival of lung cancer and 10 studies with other clinicopathological characteristics. The results of this meta-analysis suggested that p-STAT3 overexpression may be a poor prognosis biomarker in lung cancer (HR: 1.23; 95% CI: 1.04–1.46; P = 0.02). In terms of other clinicopathological characteristics, p-STAT3 overexpression was more frequent to advanced TNM stages ranging from III to IV (OR: 1.92; 95% CI: 1.13–3.27; P = 0.02) and lymphatic node metastasis (OR: 1.81; 95% CI: 1.20–2.72; P = 0.004). But, it was not associated with tumor differentiation (OR: 0.82; 95% CI: 0.44–1.53; P = 0.54).Conclusionp-STAT3 overexpression has significant correlation with poorer overall survival of lung cancer patients, as well as with more advanced TNM stages and lymph node metastasis. Thus, it may serve a biomarker for poor prognosis in lung cancer. Nevertheless, our findings should be confirmed by large prospective studies.

Leukemia therapy by flavonoids: Future and involved mechanisms

“…STATs regulate the expression of genes, which they are involved in cell growth and division. It was observed that over expression of STAT3 has bad prognosis in lung (Tong, Wang, Jiang, Pan, & Li, ) and pancreatic (C. Huang et al, ) cancers and so increased cancer cells survival and proliferation. Interleukin (IL) 6 that has a major role in STAT3 activation is one of the crucial cytokines in the tumor microenvironment that is detected at extraordinary concentrations in cancer.…”

STAT3/5 Inhibitors Suppress Proliferation in Bladder Cancer and Enhance Oncolytic Adenovirus Therapy

“…The JAK-STAT pathway is one of the most studied pathways in cellular signal transduction with diverse roles in physiological processes including cell growth and differentiation and immune response via cytokine signalling [9]. Dysregulations in this pathway are implicated in carcinogenesis and are also associated with poor prognosis in various cancers including kidney cancer [10], lung cancer [11], cervical cancer [12] and bladder cancer [13,14]. The JAK (Janus Kinase) protein family consists of JAK1-3 and Tyk2 in mammals.…”

Curcumin Inhibits Growth of Human NCI-H292 Lung Squamous Cell Carcinoma Cells by Increasing FOXA2 Expression

“…STAT3 protein is 1 of 7 cytoplasmic transcription factor family members including STAT1-6, STAT5a, and STAT5b ( Furqan et al, 2013 ) which are aberrantly activated in lung cancer tissues ( Sanchez-Ceja et al, 2006 ; Jiang et al, 2016 ). Moreover, increased STAT3 activity is correlated to poorer overall survival of lung cancer patients ( Tong et al, 2017 ). Thus, STAT3 has been regarded as a key target for lung cancer prevention ( Dutta et al, 2014 ; Harada et al, 2014 ), and inhibition of STAT3 signal showed great anticancer and antiangiogenic effects in vitro and in vivo ( Yang et al, 2012 ; Xu and Zhu, 2017 ).…”