Upregulation of LncRNA SNHG15 indicates an unfavourable prognosis and clinical features of patients in multiple malignancies: a meta-analysis and bioinformatics

Abstract

Background: A snoRNA host gene named SNHG15 which produces a short half-lived lncRNA has been reported to be dysregulated in multiple cancers and correlated with tumor progression in published researches recently. So this meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the generalized prognostic effect of SNHG15 on malignancies because of the discrepant data amongst different studies.Methods: Four public databases were utilized for identifying eligible studies. The association between prognostic indicators and clinical features were extracted and pooled for estimation of the hazard ratios (HRs) or odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Publication bias and the stability of pooled results were measured by Begg’s test, Egger’s test and sensitivity analysis respectively. Additionally, Online database based on The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) was screened and further validate our results.Results: Totally eleven studies including 1087 patients were ultimately enrolled in our paper. Promoted SNHG15 expression was associted with worse OS and DFS.Moreover, increased SNHG15 expression suggested advanced TNM stage and LNM but not correlated with age, gender and tumor size. No publication bias and instability of result were observed. SNHG15 was significantly upregulated in seven cancers and elevated expression of SNHG15 indicated shorter OS and DFS in five malignancies according to the validation using GEPIA (Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis).Conclusions: Promoted expression of lncRNA SNHG15 was markedly related to worse prognosis and clinical features, suggesting that SNHG15 might serve as a novel factor in various cancers.