Nuclear expression and/or reduced membranous expression of β-catenin correlate with poor prognosis in colorectal carcinoma: A meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: The differential subcellular localizations of β-catenin (including membrane, cytoplasm, and nucleus) play different roles in the progression of colorectal cancer (CRC). However, the correlation between each subcellular localization of β-catenin and the prognosis of CRC patients remains undetermined. METHODS: Systematic strategies were applied to search for eligible published studies in the PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science databases. The correlation between each subcellular localizations of β-catenin expression and patients’ clinicopathological features or prognosis was analyzed. RESULTS: Finally, this meta-analysis, including 6238 cases from 34 studies, revealed that β-catenin overexpression in the nucleus (HR: 1.50[95% CI: 1.08–2.10]) or reduced expression of β-catenin in the membrane (HR: 1.33[95% CI: 1.15–1.54]) significantly correlated with lower 5-year overall survival (OS). Conversely, overexpression of β-catenin in the cytoplasm (HR: 1.00[95% CI: 0.85–1.18]) did not show significant association with 5-year OS. CONCLUSION: This study suggested that β-catenin overexpression in the nucleus or reduced expression in the membrane, but not its overexpression in cytoplasm, could serve as a valuable prognostic predictor for CRC. However, additional large and well-designed prospective studies are required to verify our results.