Prognostic role of microRNA-145 in prostate cancer: A systems review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND Many studies have shown that microRNAs (miRNAs) exhibit altered expression in various cancers and may play an important role as prognostic biomarkers. The present meta-analysis was undertaken to summarize recent studies of the use of microRNA-145 (miR-145) in the assessment of prostate cancer and to analyze the prognostic role of miR-145 for disease-free survival (DFS) outcome. METHODS The present meta-analysis was performed by searching PubMed with the use of multiple search strategies. Data were extracted from studies examining DFS in patients with prostate cancer who showed lower expression of miR-145. Pooled hazard ratios of miR-145 and 95% confidence intervals were calculated. Four studies with a total of 211 patients were included in this meta-analysis. RESULTS For overall DFS, the pooled hazard ratio of lower miR-145 expression in prostate cancer was 0.74 (95% confidence interval: 0.23-2.34, P = 0.001). Thus, lower miR-145 expression was found to significantly predict poorer outcomes. CONCLUSIONS The present findings suggest that downregulation of the expression of miR-145 might predict poor prognosis in patients with prostate cancer.