Prognostic role of lncRNA TUG1 for cancer outcome: Evidence from 840 cancer patients

LncRNA TUG1 has been demonstrated to be aberrantly expressed in several types of cancer and maybe serve as a prognostic marker for cancer patients. However, most individual studies have been limited by small sample sizes and controversial results. Therefore, this meta analysis was conducted to analyze available data to delineate the potential clinical application of lncRNA TUG1 on cancer prognosis, lymph node metastasis and tumor progression. Up to February 20, 2017, literature collections were conducted by comprehensive searching electronic databases, including Cochrane Library, PubMed, Embase, BioMed Central, Springer, ScienceDirect, ISI Web of Knowledge, together with three Chinese databases. The hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence interval (95% CI) were calculated to assess the strength of the association. Eight studies with a total of 840 cancer patients were included in the present meta analysis. The results indicated that elevated lncRNA TUG1 significantly predicted unfavorable overall survival (OS) (HR = 2.06, 95% CI: 1.23–3.45, P = 0.006), but failed to show incline to lymph node metastasis (HR: 1.16, 95% CI: 0.82–1.62, P = 0.40) and disease progression (III/IV vs. I/II: HR 1.16, 95% CI: 0.74–1.81, P = 0.52). In stratified analyses, a significantly unfavorable OS associated with elevated lncRNA TUG1 was observed in both bladder cancer (HR = 2.98, 95% CI: 1.84–4.83, P < 0.0001) and other system cancer (HR = 2.63, 95% CI: 1.42–4.87, P = 0.002), but not respiratory system cancer (HR = 0.93, 95% CI: 0.30–2.82, P = 0.895). The results indicated that increased lncRNA TUG1 was an independent prognostic biomarker for unfavorable OS but may not susceptible to lymph node metastasis and tumor progression in cancer patients.