Prognostic Role of Phospho-STAT3 in Patients with Cancers of the Digestive System: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

ObjectiveThe definite prognostic role of p-STAT3 has not been well defined. We performed a meta-analysis evaluating the prognostic role of p-STAT3 expression in patients with digestive system cancers.MethodsWe searched the available articles reporting the prognostic value of p-STAT3 in patients with cancers of the digestive system, mainly including colorectal cancer, gastric cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, esophagus cancer and pancreatic cancer. The pooled hazard ratios (HRs) with 95 % confidence intervals (95 % CIs) of overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were used to assess the prognostic role of p-STAT3 expression level in cancer tissues. And the association between p-STAT3 expression and clinicopathological characteristics was evaluated.ResultsA total of 22 studies with 3585 patients were finally enrolled in the meta-analysis. The results showed that elevated p-STAT3 expression level predicted inferior OS (HR=1.809, 95% CI: 1.442-2.270, PConclusionPhospho-STAT3 might be a prognostic factor of patients with digestive system cancers. More well designed studies with adequate follow-up are needed to gain a thorough understanding of the prognostic role of p-STAT3.