Prognostic Values of Vimentin Expression and Its Clinicopathological Significance in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: A Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies with 4118 Cases

Abstract

BackgroundVimentin is a member of the intermediate filament proteins and a canonical marker of the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), which is pivotal in tumorigenesis, metastasis and invasion in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The current meta-analysis aimed to investigate the associations between vimentin and prognosis and progression in NSCLC.MethodsDatabases with literature published in English, including PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Science Direct, Wiley Online Library, Ovid, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, LILACS and Google Scholar, and the CNKI, VIP, CBM and WanFang databases in Chinese were used for the literature search. The key terms included (1) ‘vimentin’ OR ‘vim’ OR ‘vmt’ OR ‘vm’ OR ‘hel113’ OR ‘ctrct30’ and (2) ‘pulmon*’ OR ‘lung’ OR ‘alveolar’ and (3) ‘cancer’ OR ‘carcinoma’ OR ‘tumor’ OR ‘adenocarcinoma’ OR ‘squamous’ OR ‘neoplas*’ OR ‘malignan*’. The data were combined by random effect model and the H value and I2 were used to assess the heterogeneity. All the meta-analysis was conducted using Stata 12.0.ResultsThirty-two qualified studies (4118 cases) were included in the current meta-analysis. Twelve studies with 1750 patients were included to assess the significance of vimentin in the overall survival (OS) of NSCLC; the pooled hazard ratio (HR) was 1.831 (confidence interval (CI): 1.315–2.550, P<0.001) in the univariate analysis and 1.266 (CI: 0.906–1.768, P = 0.167) in the multivariate analysis. Four studies with 988 cases were applicable to determine the significance of vimentin in the disease-free survival (DFS) of NSCLC; the pooled HR of the DFS was 1.224 (CI: 0.921–1.628, P = 0.164) in the univariate analysis and 1.254 (CI: 0.985–1.956, P = 0.067) in the multivariate analysis. Regarding the relationships between vimentin and clinicopathological factors, the pooled odds ratio (OR) with 3406 NSCLCs indicated that up-regulated vimentin was associated with smoking (OR = 1.359, CI: 1.098–1.683, P = 0.004), poor differentiation (OR = 2.133, CI: 1.664–2.735, P<0.001), an advanced TNM stage (OR = 3.275, CI: 1.987–5.397, P<0.001), vascular invasion (OR = 3.492, CI: 1.063–11.472, P = 0.039), lymph node metastasis (OR = 2.628, CI: 1.857–3.718, P<0.001), recurrence (OR = 1.631, CI: 1.052–2.528, P = 0.029) and pleural invasion (OR = 2.346, CI: 1.397–3.941, P = 0.001). There was no significant correlation between vimentin and age, gender, diameter, T stage, distant metastasis, or marginal invasion (P>0.05).ConclusionAn overexpression of vimentin may predict the progression and an unfavorable survival of NSCLC. Vimentin may represent a helpful biomarker and a potential target for the treatment strategies of NSCLC. Additional, prospective studies with large samples are necessary to confirm the significance of vimentin in NSCLC.

FOXD1 Promotes Cell Growth and Metastasis by Activation of Vimentin in NSCLC

“…A meta-analysis of observational studies with 4118 NSCLC cases predicted the prognostic values of Vimentin expression in NSCLC and revealed that Vimentin is a helpful potential biomarker in NSCLC [27], but there is no information regarding the relationship between FOXD1 and Vimentin expression in lung cancer. FOXD1 expression was identified as a prognostic factor in the previous univariate analysis and multivariate Cox analysis [11].…”

Association of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition circulating tumor cells in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) molecular subgroups

“…Moreover, no difference was observed between baseline and paired samples during the treatment of patients with vim+ CTCs (P=0.373); in addition, there was no difference for those patients with dynamic change of vim+ and vim− CTCs expression during treatment (P=0.696) and no difference was observed for the ratio of vim+: total CTCs (P=0.645). Nevertheless, a meta-analysis of observational studies including 4,118 cases, showed that overexpression of vimentin on CTCs may have both predictive and prognostic value in NSCLC (16).…”

Clinical value of miR-145-5p in NSCLC and potential molecular mechanism exploration: A retrospective study based on GEO, qRT-PCR, and TCGA data

“…[5][6][7][8][9][10] In recent decades, the biological behaviors of NSCLC and molecular targeting therapies for diagnosis and treatment have undergone remarkable developments. [11][12][13][14] Despite these efforts and improvements, the diagnosis and prognosis of patients remain unsatisfactory. The 5-year survival rates for NSCLC are only 10%-15%.…”