CD44v6 overexpression related to metastasis and poor prognosis of colorectal cancer: A meta-analysis

CD44v6 has recently been reported as a biomarker for colorectal cancer. However, the clinical and prognostic significance of CD44v6 in colorectal cancer remains controversial. Therefore, we performed a meta-analysis to clarify this issue. A comprehensive literature search was performed using Medline, Embase and Web of Science, and the statistical analysis was conducted using Stata software. A total of twenty-one studies including 3918 colorectal cancer cases were included. The pooled analysis showed that CD44v6 overexpression in colorectal cancer was an independent prognostic marker correlating with lower 5-year overall survival rate (OR=0.78, 95% CI=0.67-0.91, p=0.001). CD44v6 overexpression was also associated with more lymph node invasion (OR=1.48, 95%CI=1.02-2.15, p=0.04), and advanced Dukes stage (OR= 2.47, 95% CI=1.29-4.73, p=0.01). In addition, while excluding Zolbec's study, CD44v6 overexpression was associated with distance metastasis (OR=1.65, 95% CI= 1.13-2.40, p=0.01). Taken together, this meta-analysis suggested that CD44v6 is an efficient prognostic factor in colorectal cancer.