Prognostic significance of reduced immunohistochemical expression of E-cadherin in endometrial cancer-results of a meta-analysis.

Objective: Previous studies which investigated the relationship between reduced E-cadherin and prognosis of endometrial cancer were ambiguous and conflicting. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the relationship between reduced expression of E-cadherin and endometrial cancer by meta-analysis approach. Method: AfterPubmed and Embasewere deliberately searched via the internet, 8 pieces of literaturewere totally included in final meta-analysis. After the data had been abstracted, the pulled odds ratio (OR) and hazard ratio (HR) were calculated by STATA with random or fixed effect model depending on their heterogeneity. The publication bias of included literature were tested by Begg’s funnel plot and Egger’s test. Results: The pulled data showed that the reduced expression of E-cadherin was significantly associated with overall survival (OS), HR=2.42, 95% CI: 1.50-3.89. The clinical parameters such as lymph node metastasis (LNM), myometrial invasion (MI), International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage, histological type and pathological type were also significantly associated with reduced expression of E-cadherin. The results of publication biasshowed there were no significant publication bias. Conclusion: Endometrial cancer patients with reduced expression of E-cadherin may have a poorer prognosis than those with normal or higher expression of E-cadherin.