Aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 isoenzyme expression as a marker of cancer stem cells correlates to histopathological features in head and neck cancer: A meta-analysis

There is a lack of predictive biomarkers that can identify patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) who will experience treatment failure and develop drug resistance, recurrence, and metastases. Cancer stem-like cells (CSC) were identified as a subset of cells within the tumor in a variety of solid tumors including HNSCC. CSC are considered the tumor-initiating population responsible for recurrence or metastasis and are associated with therapy resistance. This meta-analysis including fourteen studies with altogether 1258 patients updates and summarizes all relevant data on the impact of ALDH1+ CSC on the prognosis of HNSCC and its association with clinicopathological parameters. ALDH1 expression is highly correlated with tumor differentiation (G3 vs. G1+G2; odds ratio = 2.85. 95% CI: 1.72–4.73, P目前尚缺乏可识别头颈部鳞状细胞癌（head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, HNSCC）患者中出现治疗失败、耐药、复发及转移情况的预测性生物标志物。癌症干细胞样细胞（cancer stem-like cells, CSC）已在包括头颈部鳞状细胞癌在内的多种实体瘤中被鉴定为肿瘤内的一类细胞亚群。CSC被认为是介导肿瘤复发或转移的肿瘤起始细胞群体，且与治疗耐药性密切相关。本项纳入14项研究、共计1258例患者的荟萃分析，对ALDH1阳性CSC对头颈部鳞状细胞癌预后的影响及其与临床病理参数的关联的所有相关数据进行了更新与总结。ALDH1表达与肿瘤分化程度显著相关（G3 vs. G1+G2；比值比=2.85，95%置信区间：1.72–4.73，P