Prognostic and clinicopathological value of circPVT1 in human cancers: A meta-analysis

Circular RNA PVT1 (circPVT1) is significantly upregulated in various human cancers and is related to poor clinical outcome of cancer patients. However, the prognostic and clinicopathological value of circPVT1 in diverse human cancers remains controversial and inconclusive.

The objective of our study is to evaluate the prognostic and clinicopathological role of circPVT1 for cancer patients.

PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library were searched for eligible studies by October 1, 2020. The correlation between circPVT1 expression, and overall survival (OS) and clinical parameters was assessed by pooled hazard ratios (HRs) and odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Subgroup analyses, heterogeneity, and publication bias were conducted to further enhance reliability. Twelve studies (1282 patients) were selected for this meta-analysis, including 11 on prognosis and 10 on clinicopathological parameters. Elevated expression of circPVT1 was associated with a worse OS in cancer patients (HR, 2.009; 95% CI, 1.667-2.408, 1.892; P < .001). For clinicopathological value, upregulation of circPVT1 was closely related to poor clinical parameters lymph node metastasis (OR = 2.019; 95% CI, 1.026-3.976; P = .042; I²  = 77.5%; P_H  = 0.000), late clinical stage (OR = 3.594; 95% CI, 1.828-7.065; P < .001; I²  = 71.7%; P_H  = 0.001), distant metastasis (OR = 4.598; 95% CI, 1.411-14.988; P = .011; I²  = 78.1%; P_H  = 0.001), and chemoresistant (OR = 6.400; 95% CI, 2.107-19.441; P = .001; I²  = 49.6%; P_H  = 0.159).

High expression of circPVT1 is correlated with unfavorable prognosis of cancer patients, indicating that circPVT1 can function as a potential prognostic biomarker in human cancer.