Correlation of cadherin-17 protein expression with clinicopathological features and prognosis of patients with sporadic gastric cancer

This study aimed to explore the correlations between cadherin-17 (CDH17) protein expression and the clinicopathological features and prognosis of patients with sporadic gastric cancer (GC). Nine relevant studies of 1,960 patients were identified using electronic database searches supplemented with a manual search in strict accordance with inclusion and exclusion criteria. Statistical analyses were conducted using STATA 12.0 statistical software. Relative risks and 95% confidence intervals were determined, and Z test was used to measure the significance of the overall effect size. A total of nine eligible cohort studies were included in this meta-analysis. The expression of CDH17 in patients with diffuse GC was significantly higher than in those with intestinal-type GC. Moreover, the tumor depth of invasion differed significantly between patients with positive CDH17 (CDH17+) and negative CDH17 (CDH17-) GC. However, there were no significant differences between CDH17+ and CDH17- GC patients with respect to tumor node metastasis clinical stages, histological grades, or lymph node metastasis. Despite the differences in invasive depth, there was no significant difference in 5-year survival rates between CDH17+ and CDH17- GC patients. Our meta-analysis provides evidence that CDH17 protein expression may be associated with the development of GC, suggesting that CDH17 is an important biomarker that could be useful for the early diagnosis of GC. However, CDH17 levels do not appear to impact overall survival.

本研究旨在探讨钙黏蛋白17（cadherin-17, CDH17）蛋白表达与散发性胃癌（sporadic gastric cancer, GC）患者的临床病理特征及预后的相关性。严格遵循纳入与排除标准，通过电子数据库检索结合手工检索，共筛选出涉及1960例患者的9项相关研究。采用STATA 12.0统计软件进行统计学分析，计算相对风险（relative risks）及95%置信区间（95% confidence intervals），并通过Z检验（Z test）评估整体效应量的显著性。本荟萃分析（meta-analysis）共纳入9项符合标准的队列研究（cohort studies）。弥漫型胃癌患者的CDH17表达水平显著高于肠型胃癌患者；此外，CDH17阳性（CDH17+）与CDH17阴性（CDH17-）胃癌患者的肿瘤浸润深度存在显著差异。然而，CDH17+与CDH17-胃癌患者在肿瘤淋巴结转移临床分期、组织学分级及淋巴结转移方面均无显著差异。尽管两组患者的肿瘤浸润深度存在差异，但其5年生存率并无显著差异。本荟萃分析结果表明，CDH17蛋白表达可能与胃癌的发生发展相关，提示CDH17是可用于胃癌早期诊断的重要生物标志物（biomarker）；但CDH17水平似乎并未对患者总生存期产生影响。