Prognostic value of high stanniocalcin 2 expression in solid cancers: A meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Several studies have explored the prognostic value of stanniocalcin 2 (STC2) in various cancers, but obtained inconsistent results. Therefore, this meta-analysis was performed to determine the prognostic and clinicopathologic significance of STC2 in various cancers. METHODS: Eligible studies were identified by searching the online databases PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure up to March 2019. Hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) and were calculated to clarify the correlation between STC2 expression and prognosis of different cancers. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% CI were selected to appraise the correlation between STC2 with clinicopathologic characteristics of patients with cancer. RESULTS: A total of 16 eligible studies with 4074 patients with cancer were included in our meta-analysis. The results showed that high STC2 expression can predict poor overall survival (OS) for cancer (HR = 1.48, 95% CI: 1.15–1.90, P = .002). Subgroup analysis found that high STC2 expression was associated with worse OS in Asian (HR = 1.85, 95% CI: 1.35–2.55), the reported directly from articles group (HR = 1.39, 95% CI: 1.05–1.84), survival curves group (HR = 1.93, 95% CI: 1.36–2.74), and gastric cancer (HR = 1.43, 95% CI: 1.04–1.95). Furthermore, high STC2 expression was significantly related to advanced T stage (OR = 1.83, 95% CI: 1.17–2.86, P = .008), lymph node metastasis (OR = 2.29, 95% CI: 1.51–3.45, P < .001), lymphatic invasion (OR = 2.15, 95% CI: 1.53–3.02, P < .001), venous invasion (OR = 1.97, 95% CI: 1.30–2.99, P = .001), and more advanced clinical stage (OR = 2.36, 95% CI: 1.74–3.19, P < .001) CONCLUSION: Elevated expression of STC2 suggested a poor prognosis in patients with cancer and may serve as a new tumor marker to monitor cancer development and progression.