Pooled analysis of prognostic value and clinical significance of Rab1A expression in human solid tumors

This study aims to assess the relationship between Rab1A expression and clinicopathological parameters and prognosis of patients with human solid cancer by summarizing the studies included.

PubMed, EMBASE, The Cochrane Library, and other sources were searched for relative studies. The risk ratios (RRs) and confidence interval (CI) were used to assess association between Rab1A expression and clinical parameters and prognosis in solid cancer patients.

Eight studies were included in the final analysis with 800 patients. The results revealed that expression of Rab1A was significantly related with differentiation (RR = 0.883, 95%CI = 0.782-0.997, P = .044), lymph node metastasis (RR = 0.835, 95%CI = 0.753-0.926, P = .001), tumor-lymph node-metastasis (TNM) stage (RR = 1.190, 95%CI = 1.071-1.322, P < .001) and tumor size (RR = 0.818, 95%CI = 0.730-0.915, P < .001). What is more, no significant difference was seen in 1-year survival between high and low expression of Rab1A in multiple malignancies (RR = 0.855, 95%CI = 0.697-1.050, P = .136). However, increased Rab1A revealed poorer prognosis with 2-year survival (RR = 0.760, 95%CI = 0.701-0.824, P < .001), 3-year survival (RR = 0.669, 95%CI = 0.604-0.742, P < .001), 4-year survival (RR = 0.622, 95%CI = 0.554-0.698, P < .001) and 5-year survival (RR = 0.525, 95%CI = 0.458-0.698, P < .001). Expression of Rab1A was increased obviously in solid cancer tissues compared with the adjacent normal tissue (RR = 4.78, 95%CI 4.05-5.63, P = .015).

This study revealed Rab1A expression links closely with tumor size, differentiation, lymph node metastasis, TNM stage and poor prognosis of human solid cancer patients. It may act as a biomarker of prognosis and a novel therapeutic target in solid cancer.