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Prognostic value of c-MET in oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma: a study based on the mRNA expression in TCGA
Qiqi Zhang1, Xiujuan Li2, Jian Li1
1Department of Gastroenterology II, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University, State Key Laboratory of Pathogenesis, Prevention and Treatment of High Incidence Diseases in Central Asia, Urumqi, China.
Objective:
This study aims to assess the mesenchymal-epithelial transition factor's (c-MET) prognostic value in oesophageal carcinoma (ESCA) through a meta-analysis and bioinformatics.
Methods:
We analysed c-MET expression in ESCA tissues using data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and conducted a meta-analysis to evaluate its association with clinicopathological factors and survival outcomes. The meta-analysis included studies reporting hazard ratios (HRs) and odds ratios (ORs) for survival and metastatic outcomes.
Results:
The Cancer Genome Atlas analysis revealed elevated c-MET expression in ESCA, which was significantly correlated with lymph node metastasis, tumour grade and stage, though not with overall survival (OS). In the meta-analysis, 278 publications were identified, and 89 duplicates were removed. After screening, 176 articles were excluded, leaving 13 for full-text review. Of these, 5 studies lacked sufficient survival data, resulting in 8 eligible studies with a total of 1,488 patients. Meta-analysis findings indicated that high c-MET expression was associated with worse OS (HR = 1.54, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.17-2.01; p = 0.002), distant metastasis (OR = 1.97, 95% CI: 1.14-3.40; p = 0.02) and advanced stage (OR = 2.23, 95% CI: 1.41-3.53; p = 0.0006).
Conclusion:
High c-MET expression is associated with poor prognosis and advanced disease in ESCA, highlighting its potential as a biomarker for risk stratification. Further studies are needed to confirm its prognostic value and explore therapeutic implications.
