The relationship between vascular endothelial growth factor expression and the risk of childhood nephroblastoma: systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: This study explores the correlation between vascular endothelial growth factor expression and the risk of childhood nephroblastoma. METHODS: PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang database were searched to collect independent study data published in China between 2010 and 2021 on the expression and significance of VEGF in childhood nephroblastoma, and literature heterogeneity was tested. The odds ratio (OR) value was used as the effect indicator. Meta-analysis software RevMan 4.2.2 was used, and the original data of each study were statistically processed to calculate the combined OR value and 95% confidence interval (CI). RESULTS: Twelve studies involving 1,226 cases of pediatric nephroblastoma were included for systematic evaluation. The 12 randomized controlled studies reported the expression of VEGF in childhood nephroblastoma (OR =9.06, 95% CI: 6.97–11.78, P<0.00001). There was a statistically significant difference in expression of VEGF between the unfavorable histology (UH) group and the favorable histology (FH) group (OR =1.17, 95% CI: 1.07–1.27, P=0.0006) and expression of VEGF in different clinical stages of nephroblastoma, including stage I–II and III–IV (OR =0.49, 95% CI: 0.42–0.58, P<0.00001). Positive expression of VEGF showed no significant statistical difference between cases with and without tumor metastasis (OR =1.08, 95% CI: 0.86–1.36, P=0.50). CONCLUSIONS: The expression of VEGF may play an important role in the occurrence and development of childhood nephroblastoma and could help guide clinicians to judge disease and treatment.