Lgr5 Contributes to Intestinal Metaplasia During Gastric Carcinogenesis: A Meta analysis

Lgr5, which is a somatic stem cell biomarker, plays an important role during the carcinogenesis and tumor progression. But in gastric cancer, the functions of Lgr5 still remain controversial. Our meta-analysis is performed to evaluate the potential associations between Lgr5 and the outcome of patients with gastric cancer (GC). In our study, a total of 6 studies comprising 1092 patients were included. Our results demonstrated that high expression of Lgr5 was not associated to the depth of tumor invasion (pooled OR=1.395, CI95%=0.652-2.958, P=0.392, random-effect), gender of patients (pooled OR=1.264, 95%CI=0.933-1.713, P=0.13, fixed effect), tumor distance metastasis (pooled OR=1.1, 95%CI=0.734-3.754, P=0.772, random-effect), tumor size (pooled OR=0.977, 95%CI=0.705-1.353, P=0.887, random-effect), TNM stages (pooled OR=1.304, 95%CI=0.449-3.789, p=0.625, random-effect) and lymph node metastasis (pooled OR=1.507, 95%CI=0.829-2.738, P=0.178, random-effect). But interestingly, the expression of Lgr5 was associated with the age of GC patients (pooled OR=1.731, 95%CI=1.082-2.769, P=0.02) and Lauren type of GC (OR=2.284, 95%CI=1.611-3.238, P<0.001). Our findings indicated that Lgr5 might contribute to the intestinal metaplasia during gastric carcinogenesis. This difference in pathological Lauren's classification is of practical significance for us to make about appropriate treatment options in gastric cancer.