miR-19 Is a Potential Clinical Biomarker for Gastrointestinal Malignancy: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

To assess the expression and clinical value of miR-19 in gastrointestinal malignancy. Setting. Embase, Web of Science, PubMed, and other databases were retrieved to screen out relevant studies until December 31, 2019. Participants. Gastrointestinal cancer patients with the description of miR-19 expression, as well as the correlation between miR-19 and clinicopathological characteristics or prognosis. Main Outcome Measures. Pooled odds ratio (OR) or hazard ratio (HR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was obtained to determine miR-19 expression in gastrointestinal malignancy and the association between miR-19 and patients' clinical characteristics and survival.

Thirty-seven studies were included in this study. miR-19 levels in gastrointestinal malignancy, especially in hepatocellular (OR = 4.88, 95%  CI = 2.38-9.99), colorectal (OR = 4.81, 95%  CI = 2.38-9.72), and pancreatic (OR = 5.12, 95%  CI = 2.43-10.78) cancers, were significantly overexpressed, and miR-19 was tightly related to some clinicopathological characteristics, such as lymph node metastasis (OR = 1.74, 95%  CI = 1.05-2.86). Although gastrointestinal cancer patients with low and high miR-19 expression had comparable OS (overall survival) and DFS (disease-free survival), subgroup analyses showed that patients with high miR-19 presented better DFS than those with low miR-19 in liver cancer (HR = 0.46, 95%  CI = 0.30-0.71).

miR-19 might be a potential progression and prognostic biomarker for gastrointestinal malignancy.