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The prognostic value of autophagy-related markers beclin-1 and microtubule-associated protein light chain 3B in cancers: a systematic review and meta-analysis

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Tumor Biology

Abstract

Use of the autophagy-related markers beclin-1 (BECN1) and microtubule-associated protein light chain 3B (LC3B) as prognostic markers has been extensively investigated in various kinds of cancers. However, their prognostic roles are still controversial and not firmly validated. We systematically reviewed the evidence from various studies concerning the relationship between BECN1 and LC3B expression in cancers and overall survival (OS)/disease-free survival (DFS) to elucidate this issue. PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) were searched in July 2013 (then updated in April 2014) to identify eligible cohort studies that reported associations between BECN1 or LC3B expression and OS/DFS in cancer patients. Combined hazard ratios (HRs) with 95 % confidence intervals (95 % CIs) were pooled using fixed-effects or random-effects models according to heterogeneity in different groups. A total of 23 studies in distinct cancers were eligible for systematic review and meta-analysis. Our pooled results identified that a high expression of BECN1 is associated with favorable OS in gastric cancer (HR = 0.49, 95 % CI = 0.34–0.72) and lymphoma (HR = 0.25, 95 % CI = 0.11–0.57), whereas a high expression of LC3B predicts adverse OS in breast cancer (HR = 1.98, 95 % CI = 1.25–3.13). This systematic review and meta-analysis indicated that the autophagy-related marker BECN1 might be a predictive factor of favorable prognosis in gastric cancer, breast cancer, and lymphoma and LC3B might predict unfavorable prognosis of breast cancer. Nevertheless, due to the limited number and retrospective design of the original studies, more powerful prospective cohorts are required to verify these conclusions.

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Abbreviations

BECN1:

Beclin-1

LC3B:

Microtubule-associated protein light chain 3B

HR:

Hazard ratio

95 % CI:

95 % confidence interval

OS:

Overall survival

DFS:

Disease-free survival

BCL2:

B cell leukemia 2

PRISRMA:

Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses

CNKI:

China National Knowledge Infrastructure

NOS:

Newcastle-Ottawa Scale

AMSTAR:

Assessment of Multiple Systematic Reviews

IHC:

Immunohistochemistry

IF:

Immunofluorescence

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Acknowledgments

We thank the funding support from the Innovation Seed Fund of Wuhan University School of Medicine (the funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathology, School of Basic Medical Science, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430071, People’s Republic of China

    Yuyu He, Xianda Zhao, Narishka Roz Subahan, Lifang Fan & Honglei Chen

  2. Department of Molecular Pathology, Wuhan Nano Tumor Diagnosis Engineering Research Center, Wuhan, 430075, People’s Republic of China

    Jun Gao

Authors
  1. Yuyu He
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  2. Xianda Zhao
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  3. Narishka Roz Subahan
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  4. Lifang Fan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Honglei Chen.

Additional information

Yuyu He and Xianda Zhao contributed equally to this work.

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Supplementary Figure 1

Funnel plots of each group. (TIFF 11114 kb)

Supplementary Table 1

Sensitivity Analysis (DOC 67 kb)

Supplementary Table 2

Publication bias in each group by Begg’s and Egger’s Tests (DOC 44 kb)

Supplementary Table 3

Quality evaluation of this systematic review and meta-analysis using AMSTAR checklist (DOC 44 kb)

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He, Y., Zhao, X., Subahan, N.R. et al. The prognostic value of autophagy-related markers beclin-1 and microtubule-associated protein light chain 3B in cancers: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Tumor Biol. 35, 7317–7326 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-014-2060-4

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