Clinicopathological significance of p14^ARF expression in lung cancer: a meta-analysis

p14^ARF, a tumor suppressor protein, encoded by the p16 tumor suppressor gene, has been reported to be associated with the clinicopathological features of lung cancer. However, the evaluated outcomes were inconsistent and remained inconclusive. In this study, we conducted a meta-analysis to clarify the significance of p14^ARF expression in lung cancer pathogenesis.

Electronic databases, PubMed, Web of Knowledge, Embase, and CNKI, were retrieved to collect relevant articles with inclusion and exclusion criteria. Using Stata 12.0 software, 95% confidence intervals (CIs) and odds ratios (ORs) were calculated.

A total of 15 eligible case-control studies that evaluated the relationship between p14^ARF expression and lung cancer were included in the meta-analysis. The results demonstrated that there were significant associations between p14^ARF expression and the risk of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), lung adenocarcinoma, and lung squamous carcinoma (for NSCLC, OR =11.02, 95% CI =5.30-22.92; for lung adenocarcinoma, OR =7.28, 95% CI =3.92-13.50; and for lung squamous carcinoma, OR =14.40, 95% CI =2.83-73.24). In the stratified analysis based on race, significant associations between p14^ARF expression and lung cancer risk were found in Chinese population and Caucasians (for Chinese population, OR = 7.02, 95% CI =4.48-11.00 and for Caucasians, OR =4.19, 95% CI =1.42-12.38). Furthermore, the expression of p14^ARF was significantly associated with the TNM-stage of lung cancer in Chinese population (OR =2.07, 95% CI =1.38-3.10).

p14^ARF expression was significantly associated with the risk of lung cancer. In addition, the data of the meta-analysis showed that there was a significant correlation between p14^ARF expression and the TNM-stage of lung cancer in Chinese population.