Prognostic Significance of High VEGF-C Expression for Patients with Breast Cancer: An Update Meta Analysis

Zhiqiao Zhang; Guanying Luo; Hongfeng Tang; Canchang Cheng; Peng Wang

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0165725

Prognostic Significance of High VEGF-C Expression for Patients with Breast Cancer: An Update Meta Analysis

PLoS One. 2016 Nov 3;11(11):e0165725. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0165725. eCollection 2016.

Authors

Zhiqiao Zhang¹, Guanying Luo², Hongfeng Tang³, Canchang Cheng², Peng Wang¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Infectious Disease, The First People's Hospital of Shunde, Shunde, Guangdong, China.
² Department of Internal Medicine, The Chencun Affiliated Hospital of First People's Hospital of Shunde, Shunde, Guangdong, China.
³ Department of Science and Education, The First People's Hospital of Shunde, Shunde, Guangdong, China.

Abstract

Background: The prognostic significance of vascular endothelial growth factor C (VEGF-C) expression in breast cancer (BC) patients remains controversial. Therefore, this meta-analysis was performed to determine the prognostic significance of VEGF-C expression in BC patients.

Materials and methods: Several electronic databases were searched from January 1991 to August 2016. The pooled hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated to evaluate the prognostic significance of VEGF-C expression for disease free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS).

Results: The present meta analysis totally included 21 eligible studies and 2828 patients with BC. The combined HRs were 1.87(95% CI 1.25-2.79, P = 0.001) for DFS and 1.96(95% CI 1.15-3.31, P = 0.001) for OS. The pooled HRs of non-Asian subgroup were 2.04(95%CI 1.36-3.05, P = 0.001) for DFS and 2.61(95%CI 1.51-4.52, P = 0.001) for OS, which were significantly higher than that of Asian subgroup. The funnel plot for publication bias was symmetrical. The further Egger's test and Begg's test did not detect significant publication bias (all P>0.05).

Conclusions: The present meta analysis strongly supported the prognostic role of VEGF-C expression for DFS and OS in BC patients, especially for patients in non-Asian countries. Furthermore, stratification by VEGF-C expression may help to optimize the treatments and the integrated managements for BC patients.

Publication types

Meta-Analysis

MeSH terms

Biomarkers, Tumor / metabolism*
Breast Neoplasms / mortality*
Breast Neoplasms / pathology*
Disease-Free Survival*
Female
Humans
Proportional Hazards Models
Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor C / metabolism*

Substances

Biomarkers, Tumor
Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor C

Grants and funding

This study was funded in part by Guangdong Provincial Health Department. The Grant Numbers were No: A2013695 (Grant Recipient: Peng Wang) and No: A2016450 (Grant Recipient: Zhiqiao Zhang). The total funding account was RMB 15000. The funding was given by Finance Department of Guangdong Province. The received authors of the funding was Peng Wang (No: A2013695) and Zhiqiao Zhang (A2016450). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.