Prognostic value of MSI2 expression in human malignancies: A PRISMA-compliant meta-analysis

The prognostic value of Musashi-2 (MSI2) in human malignancies remains controversial. We thus conducted this meta-analysis to evaluate the association between MSI2 expression and prognosis of patients with malignancies. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We searched EMBASE, PubMed and Web of Science up to June 2021 for eligible studies. Hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated to assess the prognostic value of MSI2 expression. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% CIs were calculated to evaluate the association between MSI2 expression and clinicopathological traits. RESULTS: Sixteen studies involving 2203 patients were finally included in this meta-analysis. We found that high MSI2 expression might predict unfavorable OS (HR = 1.85, 95% CI: 1.62–2.10, P < .0001) and DFS/RFS (HR = 2.19, 95% CI: 1.87–2.57, P < .0001). Besides, the pooled results indicated that increased MSI2 expression correlated with large tumor size, poor tumor differentiation, positive lymph node metastasis and advanced tumor stage. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, our data implies that MSI2 overexpression is related to poor survival outcomes in patients with malignancy. Therefore, MSI2 may serve as a novel prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target of malignancies. However, large-scale prospective and homogeneous investigations should be conducted in the future to further validate our findings.