Prognostic value of visfatin in various human malignancies: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Although numerous studies have shown that visfatin is linked to several cancers, its prognostic value is still unclear. This first comprehensive meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the prognostic effect of visfatin in cancer patients. A systematic search was conducted for relevant studies in health-related electronic databases up to May 2019. The pooled hazard ratios (HRs) and ORs with 95 confidence intervals (CIs) for total and stratified analyses were calculated to demonstrate the prognostic value of visfatin expression level in cancer patients. Heterogeneity and publication bias were also investigated. A total of 14 eligible studies with 1616 patients were included in the current meta-analysis. Pooling results revealed that, high visfatin expression was significantly associated with poorer overall survival (OS) (HR = 2.43, 95 CI 1.64�3.62, P < 0.001). Elevated visfatin level was also correlated with positive lymph node metastasis (OR = 2.45, 95 CI 1.43�4.17, P � 0.001), positive distance metastasis (OR = 2014, 95 CI 1.25�3.69, P � 0.001), advanced tumor stage (OR = 3.01, 95 CI 1.91�7.72, P � 0.001), and larger tumor size (OR = 1.99, 95 CI 1.49�2.69, P � 0.001). Our meta-results indicates that altered visfatin expression is a potential indicator of poor clinical outcomes in tumor patients, suggesting that high visfatin expression may serve as a potential biomarker of poor prognosis and metastasis in cancers. © 201