Prognostic significance of microRNA miR-24 in cancers: a meta-analysis

The prognostic significance of miR-24 in tumors has not been determined. Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis to systematically assess the correlation between miR-24 and its prognostic value in cancers PubMed, EMBASE, and Web of Science databases were used to search relevant articles (up to 1 October 2020). Studies that evaluated the prognostic value of miR-24 in tumors were included. The hazard ratio (HR) and odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were used to evaluate survival outcomes and clinical characteristics. All data analyses were implemented using STATA 12.0 software. A total of 17 studies from 15 articles involving 1705 patients were collected for the meta-analysis. The pooled analysis revealed that elevated miR-24 expression was obviously associated with poor overall survival (OS) (HR = 1.66, 95% CI: 1.20–2.31). Furthermore, we also found that elevated miR-24 expression was positively correlated with tumor size (large or small) and tumor stage (III–IV vs I–II). Elevated miR-24 expression indicates poor prognosis and may be a promising prognostic marker in different cancers. Our findings needed to be verified through further investigations. [Figure: see text]