Clinicopathological significance of CXCR4 in non-small cell lung cancer

Xiao-ming Zhou,1 Lan He,2 Gang Hou,3 Bing Jiang,4 Yuan-he Wang,5 Li Zhao1 1Department of Respiratory Medicine, The Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Microbiology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Respiratory Medicine, 4Department of Ultrasonography, The First Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, People’s Republic of China; 5Department of Medical Oncology, Liaoning Cancer Hospital, Shenyang, People’s Republic of ChinaBackground: Emerging evidence indicates that C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR4) is a candidate oncogene in several types of human tumors including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the correlation between CXCR4 expression and clinicopathological characteristics of NSCLC remains unclear. Here, we conducted a meta-analysis to quantitatively evaluate the association of CXCR4 expression with the incidence of NSCLC and clinicopathological characteristics.Methods: A detailed literature search was made from Medline and Web of Science for related research publications written in English and Chinese. The methodological quality of the studies was also evaluated. Analyses of pooled data were performed. Odds ratio (OR) and hazard ratio (HR) were calculated and summarized.Results: The final analysis of 1,446 NSCLC patients from 13 eligible studies was performed. We observed that CXCR4 expression was significantly higher in NSCLC than in normal lung tissue from the pooled OR from five studies including 380 NSCLC and 118 normal lung tissue (OR=12.86, 95% confidence interval =3.63–45.59, P<0.0001). CXCR4 expression was not associated with smoking status and type of pathology. However, CXCR4 expression was significantly associated with clinical stages, metastatic status, and overall survival in NSCLC patients.Conclusion: The results of this meta-analysis suggest that CXCR4 expression is associated with an increased risk and worse survival in NSCLC patients. The aberrant CXCR4 expression plays an important role in the carcinogenesis and metastasis of NSCLC.Keywords: chemokine, clinicopathological factor, hazard ratio, meta-analysis, odds ratio &nbsp