MicroRNA-21 and the clinical outcomes of various carcinomas: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: MicroRNA-21 (miR-21) has been suggested to play a significant role in the prognosis of carcinoma. The recognition of novel biomarkers for the prediction of cancer outcomes is urgently required. However, the potential prognostic value of miR-21 in various types of human malignancy remains controversial. The present meta-analysis summarises and analyses the associations between miR-21 status and overall survival (OS) in a variety of tumours. METHODS: Eligible published studies were identified by searching the PubMed and Chinese Biomedicine databases. The patients’ clinical characteristics and survival results were pooled, and a pooled hazard ratio (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) was used to calculate the strength of this association. A random-effects model was adopted, and then, meta-regression and subgroup analyses were performed. In addition, an analysis of publication bias was also conducted. RESULTS: Twenty-seven eligible articles (including 31 studies) were identified that included survival data for 3273 patients. The pooled HR suggested that high miR-21 was clearly related to worse overall survival (HR = 2.27, 95% CI: 1.81-2.86), with a heterogeneity measure index of I(2) = 76.0%, p = 0.001, showing that miR-21 might be a considerable prognostic factor for poor survival in cancer patients. CONCLUSIONS: MiR-21 might be a potentially useful biomarker for predicting cancer prognosis in future clinical applications. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2407-14-819) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.