Diagnosis and Prognostic Significance of c-Met in Cervical Cancer: A Meta-Analysis

OBJECTIVE A meta-analysis was conducted to analyze c-Met expression in cervical cancer. METHODS Articles related to our study were retrieved from PubMed, Elsevier, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure. State 12.0 was used for literature review, data extraction, and meta-analysis. The random-effects model and fixed-effects model were utilized to pool the relative ratio based on the heterogeneity test in the meta-analysis. RESULTS Nine studies that include data of 685 cervical carcinoma tissues were analyzed. However, three studies did not thoroughly discuss c-Met expression in nonneoplastic cervical tissue; thus, only six studies involving 364 patients and 228 nonneoplastic cervical tissues were included in the review. c-Met expression was higher in cervical cancer (60.99%) than in nonneoplastic cervical tissue (19.74%). Cervical carcinoma, cervical intraepithelial neoplasm, and normal cervical tissue were also examined. Results showed that increasing malignancy resulted in elevated c-Met expression. The relationship between c-Met expression and clinicopathologic features was also evaluated. c-Met expression correlated with disease-free survival, lymph node involvement, and lymphovascular space invasion. No statistical difference was observed between c-Met expression and other clinicopathological factors. CONCLUSIONS c-Met is a potential diagnostic and prognostic indicator of cervical cancer.