A meta-analysis on the role of pleiotrophin (PTN) as a prognostic factor in cancer

Background Some researchers reported that pleiotrophin (PTN) is associated with the development and metastasis of various tumors and it is a poor prognostic factor for the tumor patients. However, the results of other researches are inconsistent with them. It is obliged to do a metaanalysis to reach a definite conclusion. Methods The published studies relevant to PTN were searched in the databases including PubMed, Embase and Web of Science until March 20, 2018. A meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the role of PTN in clinicopathological characteristics and overall survival (OS) of cancer patients. Results Our meta-analysis indicated that the high expression of PTN was remarkably associated with advanced TNM stage (OR = 2.79, 95% CI: 1.92-4.06, P<0.00001) and poor OS (HR = 1.77, 95%CI: 1.41-2.22, P<0.00001) in tumor patients. The expression of PTN was not associated with tumor size (OR = 1.12, 95% CI: 0.55-2.26, P = 0.76), lymph node metastasis (LNM) (OR = 1.95, 95% CI: 0.62-6.12, P = 0.25), distant metastasis (DM) (OR = 2.78, 95%CI: 0.72-10.74, P = 0.14) and histological grade (OR = 1.95, 95%CI: 0.98-3.87, P = 0.06). Conclusion The high expression of PTN is significantly relevant to the advanced TNM stage and poor OS in tumor patients. PTN can serve as a promising biomarker to predict unfavorable survival outcomes, and it may be a potential target for tumor treatment.