Hypermethylation of tumor suppressor genes is a risk factor for poor prognosis in ovarian cancer: A meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE: DNA methylation is the earliest and most studied epigenetic modification in cancer. The literature reported that the abnormal methylation level of multiple genes was associated with poor prognosis in ovarian cancer. However, due to a small sample size, the results reported in the literature vary widely. In this study, the correlation between aberrant methylation level of genes and poor prognosis of ovarian cancer was reviewed in order to clarify the role of DNA methylation in the prognosis of ovarian cancer. METHODS: A systematic research of PubMed, EMbase, Cochrane Library, China Biology Medicine disc (CBMdisc), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang databases, and EMBASE was performed, and calculated the hazard ratio (HR) of overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) and its 95% confidence interval. RESULTS: HR of the OS obtained of target genes was 2.32 (95% CI: 1.54–3.48, P = .000); HR of the PFS obtained of target genes was 1.318 (95% CI: 0.848–2.050, P = .220). HR of OS achieved by tumor suppressor genes was 3.09 (95% CI 1.80 − 5.30, P = .000). CONCLUSION: Hypermethylation of tumor suppressor genes indicate poor prognosis of ovarian cancer.