Clinicopathological and prognostic significance of the RUNX3 expression in gastric cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: The relationship between expression of runt related transcription factor 3 (RUNX3) and clinicopathological parameters of the patients with gastric cancer (GC) is controversial. Methods: The studies were retrieved from those already published essay in PubMed, EMBASE, Wan Fang, CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure), the Cochrane Library and Google Scholar. All statistical tests in this meta-analysis were performed using Stata 10.0 software (Stata Corp, College Station, TX). A P value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: A total of nine studies involving 796 patients were included in final meta-analysis. The pooled data showed that expression of RUNX3 was significant correlated with tumor's differentiation (OR = 0.387; 95% CI: 0.237-0.633; P = 0.000), depth of invasion (OR = 0.443; 95% CI: 0.273-0.717; P = 0.001), lymph node metastasis (OR = 0.394; 95% CI: 0.259-0.598; P = 0.000), distant metastasis (OR = 0.403; 95% CI: 0.213-0.764; P = 0.005) and TNM stage (OR = 0.461; 95% CI, 0.322-0.659; P = 0.000) in GC. Expression of RUNX3 was significant correlated with good overall survival (OS) [1-year OS (OR = 2.735; 95% CI: 1.966-3.806; P = 0.000), 3-year OS (OR = 4.782; 95% CI: 3.634-6.292; P = 0.000), 5-year OS (OR = 5.191; 95% CI: 3.775-7.138; P = 0.000]. However, RUNX3 was not correlated with gender (OR = 1.409; 95% CI: 0.986-2.014; P = 0.060). Conclusion: RUNX3 expression correlates with tumor's differentiation, depth of invasion, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, TNM stage and OS of GC patients.