Long non-coding RNA FTX predicts a poor prognosis of human cancers: a meta-analysis

Background: Several studies have assessed the relationship between long non-coding RNA five prime to Xist (FTX) expression, clinicopathological features, and survival outcomes in patients with cancer with conflicting results. This meta-analysis synthesized existing data to clarify the association between FTX with cancer prognosis. Methods: PubMed, Embase, Cochrane library, Web of Science, Chinese CNKI, and the Chinese WanFang databases were used to search for relevant studies. The role of FTX in cancers was evaluated by pooled odds ratios (ORs) and hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results: Eleven studies comprising 1210 participants including colorectal cancer (CRC), hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), gastric cancer (GC), renal cell carcinoma (RCC), osteosarcoma (OSC), and glioma were enrolled in this analysis. The meta-analysis showed that high FTX expression was significantly associated with several clinicopathological characteristics, including lymph node metastasis in patients with CRC, GC, HCC, and RCC, distant metastasis in patients with CRC, GC, HCC, and OSC, larger tumor size in patients with CRC, GC, HCC, RCC, and OSC, and subsequently TNM/clinical stage in patients with CRC, GC, HCC, OSC, and glioma. The pooled results from the survival analysis revealed a significant correlation between high FTX expression and shorter OS in patients with HCC, CRC, GC, OSC, and glioma. Further, FTX overexpression could be an independent predictive marker for shorter OS in patients with CRC, HCC, OSC, and glioma. Conclusions: FTX may be a potential oncogene, with high FTX expression being associated with a poorer prognosis in patients with CRC, HCC, OSC, and glioma.