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Meta-Analysis
. 2013 Jun 14;8(6):e65753.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0065753. Print 2013.

Prognostic significance of HIF-1α expression in hepatocellular carcinoma: a meta-analysis

Su-Su Zheng  1 , Xiao-Hong Chen, Xin Yin, Bo-Heng Zhang
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Prognostic significance of HIF-1α expression in hepatocellular carcinoma: a meta-analysis

Su-Su Zheng et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Aim: Pilot studies have evaluated the correlation between hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) overexpression and clinical outcome in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. However, the results remain inconclusive. To comprehensively and quantitatively summarize the evidence on the suitability of HIF-1α to predict the prognosis of patients with HCC, a meta-analysis was carried out.

Methods: Systematic literature searches were applied to PubMed, Elsevier and Web of Science databases until Feb. 2013. Seven studies (953 patients) were included in this meta-analysis. Pooled measure was calculated from the available data to evaluate the association between tissue -based HIF-1α level and overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) in HCC patients. The relation between HIF-1α expression and vascular invasion was also assessed. Data were synthesized with fixed or random effect model, hazard ration (HR) or odds ratio (OR) with its 95% confidence interval (CI) was used as the effect size estimate.

Result: The combined data suggested that HIF-1α overexpression in HCC correlated with poor OS [HR = 1.65 (95% (CI): 1.38, 1.97)] and DFS [HR = 2.14 (95% CI: 1.39, 3.29)]. And high HIF-1α expression tended to be associated with vascular invasion [OR = 2.21 (95% CI: 1.06, 4.57)].

Conclusion: HIF-1α overexpression indicates a poor prognosis for patients with HCC, it may also have predictive potential for HCC invasion and metastasis.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Flow diagram indicating the process of selecting articles for meta-analysis.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Plot illustrates findings from meta-analysis of the association between HIF-1α overexpression and disease free survival (DFS) in 7 trials.
Each study was shown by the name of the first author and the HR with 95% CIs. The summary HR and 95% CIs were also shown (according to the fixed effect estimations).
Figure 3
Figure 3. Plot illustrates findings from meta-analysis of the association between HIF-1α overexpression and overall survival (OS) in 7 trials.
Each study was shown by the name of the first author and the HR with 95% CIs. The summary HR and 95% CIs were also shown (according to the fixed effect estimations).
Figure 4
Figure 4. Plot illustrates findings from meta-analysis of the association between HIF-1α overexpression and tumor vascular invasion in 7 trials.
Each study was shown by the name of the first author and the OR with 95% CIs. The summary OR and 95% CIs were also shown (according to the random effect estimations).
Figure 5
Figure 5. Funnel plot for hazard ratios of recessive model in DFS studies.
Figure 6
Figure 6. Funnel plot for hazard ratios of recessive model in OS studies.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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This was an investigator-led study and no specific financial support was obtained.