Prognostic value of visfatin in various human malignancies: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Although numerous studies have shown that visfatin is linked to several cancers, its prognostic value is still unclear. This first comprehensive meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the prognostic effect of visfatin in cancer patients. A systematic search was conducted for relevant studies in health-related electronic databases up to May 2019. The pooled hazard ratios (HRs) and ORs with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for total and stratified analyses were calculated to demonstrate the prognostic value of visfatin expression level in cancer patients. Heterogeneity and publication bias were also investigated. A total of 14 eligible studies with 1616 patients were included in the current meta-analysis. Pooling results revealed that, high visfatin expression was significantly associated with poorer overall survival (OS) (HR = 2.43, 95% CI 1.64-3.62, P < 0.001). Elevated visfatin level was also correlated with positive lymph node metastasis (OR = 2.45, 95% CI 1.43-4.17, P ≤ 0.001), positive distance metastasis (OR = 2014, 95% CI 1.25-3.69, P ≤ 0.001), advanced tumor stage (OR = 3.01, 95% CI 1.91-7.72, P ≤ 0.001), and larger tumor size (OR = 1.99, 95% CI 1.49-2.69, P ≤ 0.001). Our meta-results indicates that altered visfatin expression is a potential indicator of poor clinical outcomes in tumor patients, suggesting that high visfatin expression may serve as a potential biomarker of poor prognosis and metastasis in cancers.