Prognostic and Clinicopathological Value of PINX1 in Various Human Tumors: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract EN

PINX1 (Pin2/TRF1 interacting protein X1, an intrinsic telomerase inhibitor and putative tumor suppressor gene) may represent a novel prognostic tumor biomarker.

However, the results of previous studies are inconsistent and the prognostic value of PINX1 remains controversial.

Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis to determine whether PINX1 expression is associated with overall survival (OS), disease-specific survival (DSS), disease-free survival (DFS), recurrence-free survival (RFS), and clinicopathological characteristics in patients with malignant tumors.

A systematic search was performed in the PubMed, Web of Science, and Embase databases in April 2018.

Quality assessment was performed according to the modified Newcastle-Ottawa Scale.

Pooled odds ratios (ORs) and hazard ratios (HRs) with 95.0% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated to determine the relationship between PINX1 expression and OS, DSS, DFS/RFS, and clinicopathological characteristics.

Due to the heterogeneity across the included studies, subgroup and sensitivity analyses were performed.

Fixed-effects models were used when the heterogeneity was not significant and random-effects models were used when the heterogeneity was significant.

Fourteen studies of 16 cohorts including 2,624 patients were enrolled.

Low PINX1 expression was associated with poor OS (HR: 1.51, 95.0% CI: 1.03–2.20; P = 0.035) and DFS/RFS (HR: 1.78, 95.0% CI: 1.28–2.47; P = 0.001) but not DSS (HR: 0.80, 95.0% CI: 0.38–1.67; P = 0.548).

Low PINX1 expression was also associated with lymphatic invasion (OR: 2.23, 95.0% CI: 1.35–3.70; P = 0.002) and advanced tumor-node-metastasis stage (OR: 2.43, 95.0% CI: 1.29–4.57; P = 0.006).

No significant associations were observed between low PINX1 expression and sex, depth of invasion, grade of differentiation, and distant metastasis.

Low PINX1 expression was associated with poor OS and DFS/RFS and lymphatic invasion and advanced tumor-node-metastasis stage, suggesting that PINX1 expression may be a useful predictor of prognosis in patients with malignant tumors.