Clinicopathological Significance of Heat Shock Protein (HSP) 27 Expression in Gastric Cancer: A Updated Meta-Analysis

AIM: HSP27 is a protein chaperone protecting cell from heat shock, and upregulated HSP27 expression has been found in many different cancers. We conduct this update meta-analysis to evaluate the relationship between HSP27 expression and clinicopathological features. METHODS: We searched PubMed, Chinese CNKI, and WanFang databases to identify studies that assessed the association between clinicopathological feature and HSP27 expression in gastric cancer patients. RESULTS: We found overexpression of HSP27 was associated with incidence of gastric cancer (OR = 6.31, 95% CI = 1.10–36.15, P < 0.0001). However, there was no significant difference between HSP27 expression and gastric cancer differentiation, gender difference, lymph node metastasis, and distant metastasis. CONCLUSION: Our meta-analysis study indicates that overexpression of HSP27 is associated with incidence of gastric cancer statistically.