Role of c-Met expression on prognosis of head and neck cancer: A literature review and meta-analysis

: The prognostic role of c-Met expression in patients with head and neck cancer were controversial among different studies. Thus, we performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the relationships between c-Met expression and survival and clinical parameters of head and neck cancer patients. Summary hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated to analyze the correlations between c-Met expression and overall survival (OS), and disease-free survival (DFS). Furthermore, odds ratios (ORs) and 95% CIs were used to describe the relationships between c-Met expression and different clinicopathological parameters. A total of 2417 patients from 19 studies were enrolled in the final analysis. The results showed that patients with higher c-Met expression had a poor OS (HR, 1.65; 95% CI, 1.20-2.27) and DFS (HR, 1.48; 95% CI, 0.99-2.20). In addition, c-Met expression was associated with the N classification of patients with head and neck cancer. These results suggested that c-Met expression was a risk factor for head and neck cancer, and increased c-Met expression would be a predictor of a poorer prognosis for the patients.