Prognostic value and clinical significance of long noncoding RNA CASC2 in human malignancies: a meta-analysis

PURPOSE: This meta-analysis aimed to assess the prognostic value of long noncoding RNA cancer susceptibility candidate 2 (CASC2) in human tumors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We searched the available databases up to December 2017. Pooled hazard ratios (HRs) and the corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to examine the prognostic impact of CASC2 on overall survival (OS) in patients diagnosed with malignancies. RESULTS: A total of eight studies with 663 cancer patients were enrolled. Our results showed that high CASC2 expression level was associated with a favorable OS (HR=0.437, 95% CI: 0.345–0.554). The significant results were not altered by stratified analysis according to cancer type, sample size, follow-up months, and HR estimation method. A significant association of glioma tumor stage with CASC2 expression was detected (III–IV vs I–II: odds ratio=2.126, 95% CI: 1.032–4.378). CASC2 could be used as an independent prognostic factor for OS (HR=0.450, 95% CI: 0.336–0.602). Sensitivity analysis showed that no single study changed the pooled results significantly. Begg’s funnel plot and Egger’s test showed that no publication bias was detected. CONCLUSION: High expression level of CASC2 is associated with favorable survival outcome for cancer patients, and CASC2 could be used as a prognostic predictor for cancers.