Expression of hypoxia inducible factor 1 alpha and its clinical significance in esophageal carcinoma: A meta-analysis

Abstract

Many studies have analyzed the relationship between hypoxia inducible factor 1 alpha expression and its relation to differentiation, lymph node metastasis, and other clinicopathological variables of esophageal carcinoma, but the results are still inconsistent. This meta-analysis was carried out to explore hypoxia inducible factor 1 alpha in esophageal carcinoma and its correlation with clinicopathological features and prognosis, in order to provide comprehensive reference for clinic. A total of 18 studies including 1566 patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma were enrolled. The results showed that compared with para-carcinoma tissue, the expression of hypoxia inducible factor 1 alpha was significantly enhanced (odds ratio = 0.122, 95% confidence interval = 0.074-0.201, p = 0.000); hypoxia inducible factor 1 alpha was associated with differentiation (odds ratio = 1.458, 95% confidence interval = 1.108-1.920, p = 0.007), T classification (odds ratio = 0.457, 95% confidence interval = 0.265-0.786, p = 0.005), lymph node metastasis (odds ratio = 0.337, 95% confidence interval = 0.185-0.614, p = 0.000), and pathological tumor-node-metastasis stage (odds ratio = 0.362, 95% confidence interval = 0.177-0.740, p = 0.005), whereas there was no relation to histological grade, lymphatic vessel invasion, blood vessel invasion, 3- to 5-year overall survival and disease-free survival. Patients with hypoxia inducible factor 1 alpha overexpression had poor differentiation, increased depth of tumor invasion, more lymph node metastasis, and late pathological tumor-node-metastasis stage. Hypoxia inducible factor 1 alpha could be an indicator for differentiation, T classification, lymph node metastasis, and pathological tumor-node-metastasis stage, and it is worth further study.

Prognostic value of hypoxia-inducible factor-1 alpha in nasopharyngeal carcinoma: a meta-analysis

“…Our research was in line with many previous meta-analyses investigating the prognostic significance of HIF-1α in other tumors, such as esophageal carcinoma, 20 oral squamous cell carcinoma, 21 lung cancer, 22 glioma, 41 etc. All these studies had demonstrated that HIF-1α expression was correlated with poor prognosis.…”

“…It has been reported that expression of HIF-1α promotes tumor cell proliferation, invasion, migration, and resistance to radiotherapy. 18,19 Numerous studies have confirmed that HIF-1α expression is related to poor survival in various cancers, such as esophageal carcinoma, 20 oral squamous cell carcinoma, 21 and lung cancer. 22 However, the prognostic value of HIF-1α expression in NPC has not been clearly elucidated until now.…”

The Critical Role of Hypoxic Microenvironment and Epigenetic Deregulation in Esophageal Cancer Radioresistance

“…In EC, high HIF-1α levels have been correlated with tumor depth of invasion, differentiation, lymphatic permeation and metastization [34]. Accordingly, HIF-1α and hypoxic-associated biomarkers, such as carbonic anhydrase IX (CAIX) and glucose transporter 1 (GLUT-1) were strongly associated with worse prognosis and poor treatment outcome of EC patient’s [13,35,36].…”

<p>Esophageal Microenvironment: From Precursor Microenvironment to Premetastatic Niche</p>

“…In summary, overexpression of HIF-1 can be produced for EC through a variety of regulatory mechanisms and is closely related to a variety of adverse prognostic factors such as tumor invasion depth, lymph node metastasis, and resistance to chemoradiation. 60 , 61 However, some studies have shown that HIF-1α has different effects on the prognosis of ESCC and EAC, respectively. 62 This suggested that more detailed and precise researches were required on different cell and molecular subtypes.…”