The relationship between the expression of soluble programmed cell death-1 and cancer pain: A protocol for systematic review and meta analysis

BACKGROUND: The immune checkpoint programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) plays a critical role in immune regulation. Recent studies have demonstrated functional PD-1 expression in peripheral sensory neurons, which contributes to neuronal excitability, pain, and opioid analgesia. However, the relationship between the expression of soluble programmed cell death-1(sPD-1) and cancer pain is controversial. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between sPD-1 expression level and cancer pain through meta-analysis. METHODS: Studies were selected from Pubmed, Web of science, Embase, Google Scholar, and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, and the Chinese Biomedical Literature Database based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. The standard mean difference (SMD) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated using the random-effect model or fixed-effect model to assess the association between sPD-1 expression level and cancer pain. All analyses were performed with the Stata 14 software. RESULTS: This review will be disseminated in print by peer-review. CONCLUSION: The results of this study will help us to determine whether the expression level of sPD-1 is related to cancer pain. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The private information from individuals will not be published. This systematic review also should not endanger participant rights. Ethical approval is not available. The results may be published in a peer-reviewed journal or disseminated in relevant conferences. OSF REGISTRATION NUMBER: DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/WDPUY.