Prognostic Potential of MicroRNAs in Glioma Patients: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Introduction MicroRNAs are a noncoding RNA involved in affecting several transcription and translation pathways. Their use has been discussed as potential predictors of several tumors. Their use as potential biomarker in glioma patients is still controversial. The purpose of this meta-analysis is to explore the possible role of such microRNAs in glioma patients. Methods After an extensive literature search done on PubMed and Embase, 20 studies were chosen for our analyses with the 9 discussing 11 tumor promoting microRNAs and 11 studies discussing 11 tumor suppressing microRNAs. The data needed was extracted from these studies including the hazard ratio that was used as the effect size for the purpose of our analysis. The needed analysis was performed using Stata and Excel. Results The pooled hazard ratio for our analysis with patients having a lower microRNA expression for tumor promoting microRNAs came to be 2.63 (p < 0.001), while the hazard ratio for patients with higher expression of tumor promoting microRNA was 2.47 (p < 0.001) with both results being statistically significant. However, as significant heterogeneity was observed a random effect model for analysis was used. Subgroup analysis was further performed using grade, cutoff value (mean or median), sample type (Serum or Blood), and Karnofsky performance score, all of them showing a high hazard ratio. Conclusion Our results showed that both tumor inhibitory and promoting microRNA can be used as prognostic tool in glioma patients with a poorer prognosis associated with a lower expression in tumor suppressive and higher expression in tumor promoting microRNA, respectively. However, to support this, future studies on a much larger scale would be needed.

MicroRNA as a potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarker in brain gliomas: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Consistent to the present OS, PFS, and DFS analysis, a recent meta-analysis on prognostic value of miRNAs in glioma, affirmed that both overexpression of tumor promoting miRNAs and lower expression of suppressors, are significantly associated with poor prognosis in glioma (79). 11,518 cases of glioma, included in the resent study, showed OS HRs more than one (OS HR: 2.0221 (95% CI: 1.8497-2.2105, p < 0.0001; I 2 = 74.1%)).…”