[Prognostic value of lncRNA HOTAIR expression in 
patients with cancer: A Meta-analysis]

To systematically review the prognostic value regarding the expression of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) Hox transcript antisense intergenic RNA (HOTAIR) in patients with cancer. 
 Methods: Databases including The Cochrane Library, EMBASE, MEDLINE, and PubMed were searched to collect English literature on the correlation between lncRNA HOTAIR expression and overall survival in tumors. The retrieval time was from inception to September 2015. After data were extracted, a Meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.3 software.
 Results: A total of 17 studies were included, which was involved in 1 639 patients. The Meta-analysis showed that high expression of HOTAIR could predict poor overall survival in cancer (HR: 2.39, 95% CI 2.01-2.86, P<0.001). High expression of HOTAIR could also predict poor overall survival both in digestive tumor (HR: 2.51, 95% CI 2.02-3.11, P<0.001) and non-digestive tumor (HR: 2.17, 95% CI 1.59-2.98, P<0.001). Moreover, overexpression of HOTAIR was found to be significantly associated with recurrence-free survival.
 Conclusion: The overexpression of lncRNA HOTAIR might be associated with poor prognosis in patients with cancer.