Prognostic Value of PLCE1 Expression in Upper Gastrointestinal Cancer: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Abstract

<b>Background:</b> A number of studies have identified a shared susceptibility locus in phospholipase C epsilon 1(PLCE1) for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and gastric cardia adenocarcinomas (GCA). However,the results of PLCE1 expression in esophageal and gastric cancer remain inconsistent and controversial.Moreover, the effects on clinicopathological features remain undetermined. This study aimed to provide aprecise quantification of the association between PLCE1 expression and the risk of ESCC and GCA throughmeta-analysis. Materials and <br/><b>Methods</b>: Eligible studies were identified from PubMed, Wanfang Data, ISI Web ofScience, and the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure databases. Using RevMan5.2 software, pooled oddsratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were employed to assess the association of PLCE1 expressionwith clinicopathological features relative to ESCC or GCA. <br/><b>Results</b>: Seven articles were identified, including761 esophageal and gastric cancer cases and 457 controls. Overall, we determined that PLCE1 expression wasassociated with tumor progression in both esophageal cancers (pooled OR=5.93; 95%CI=3.86 to 9.11) and gastriccancers (pooled OR=9.73; 95%CI=6.46 to 14.7). Moreover, invasion depth (pooled OR=3.62; 95%CI=2.30 to5.70) and lymph node metastasis (pooled OR=4.21; 95%CI=2.69 to 6.59) were linked with PLCE1 expressionin gastric cancer. However, no significant associations were determined between PLCE1 overexpression andthe histologic grade, invasion depth, and lymph node metastasis in esophageal cancer. <br/><b>Conclusions</b>: Our metaanalysisresults indicated that upregulated PLCE1 is significantly associated with an increased risk of tumorprogression in ESCC and GCA. Therefore, PLCE1 expression can be appropriately regarded as a promisingbiomarker for ESCC and GCA patients.