High lncSNHG15 expression may predict poor cancer prognosis: a meta-analysis based on the PRISMA and the bio-informatics analysis

Background: SNHG15 has been reported to be aberrantly expressed in various tumor tissues and could serve as a promising prognostic cancer biomarker. Previous studies on SNHG15 yielded inconsistent results with insufficient sampling. Here, a meta-analysis was conducted to investigate the prognostic value of SNHG15 in multiple cancers. Methods: Relevant studies were retrieved from six electronic databases including PubMed, Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, Embase, Web of Science and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). Fifteen publications comprising 1318 patients were included. The publication bias was identified by the Begg’s Test, and the sensitivity analysis was also performed. Results: The results demonstrated a positive correlation between high expression level of lncSNHG15 and short overall survival (hazard ratio (HR) = 2.07, 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.48–2.88; P<0.0001) and disease-free survival (DFS) (HR = 2.32, 95% CI, 1.53–3.53; P<0.0001). The analysis based on different cancer types showed that SNHG15 had the most prominent prognostic potential in Glioma (HR = 3.81; 95% CI, 0.84–42.69; P=0.28). Moreover, the high expression level of lncSNHG15 indicated advanced TNM stage (OR = 2.52; 95% CI, 1.33–4.76; P=0.00001), lymph node metastasis (OR = 2.41, 95% CI, 0.99–4.81; P=0.05), bigger tumor size (OR = 2.06; 95% CI, 1.03–4.13; P=0.04) and poor histological grade (OR = 2.62, 95% CI, 1.90–3.59; P<0.00001), yet no association with distant metastasis (OR = 1.64, 95% CI, 0.40–6.74; P=0.49), age (OR = 0.98, 95% CI, 0.78–1.22; P=0.84) and gender (OR = 0.9, 95% CI, 0.71–1.14; P=0.3838) was found. Its conclusions further confirmed by exploring TCGA databases. Conclusion: It revealed that lncSNHG15 might be a promising prognostic biomarker of multiple cancer types, especially in Glioma.