title: Role of RASSF1A promoter methylation in the pathogenesis of hepatocellular carcinoma: a meta-analysis of 21 cohort studies.
abstract: We carried out the current meta-analysis aiming to comprehensively assess the potential role of RASSF1A aberrant promoter methylation in the pathogenesis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). A range of electronic databases were searched: Web of Science (1945-2013), the Cochrane Library Database (Issue 12, 2013), PubMed (1966-2013), EMBASE (1980-2013), CINAHL (1982-2013) and the Chinese Biomedical Database (CBM) (1982-2013) without language restrictions. Meta-analysis was conducted using the STATA 12.0 software. Crude risk difference (RD) with their 95% confidence interval (95% CI) was calculated. In the present meta-analysis, 21 clinical cohort studies with a total of 1,205 HCC patients were included. The results of our meta-analysis illustrated that the frequency of RASSF1A promoter methylation in cancer tissues were significantly higher than those of normal, adjacent and benign tissues (cancer tissues vs. normal tissues: RD = 0.63, 95% CI 0.53-0.73, P < 0.001; cancer tissues vs. adjacent tissues: RD = 0.43, 95% CI 0.33-0.53, P < 0.001; cancer tissues vs. benign tissues: RD = 0.48, 95% CI 038-0.58, P < 0.001; respectively). Further subgroup by ethnicity demonstrated that RASSF1A aberrant promoter methylation was correlated with the pathogenesis of HCC among both Asians and Caucasians (all P < 0.05). The current meta-analysis suggests that RASSF1A aberrant promoter methylation may be implicated in the pathogenesis of HCC. Thus, detection of RASSF1A promoter methylation may be a helpful and valuable biomarker for diagnosis and prognosis of HCC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Surgery, The Fourth Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Chongshan East Road No. 4, Huanggu District, Shenyang, 110032, People's Republic of China, cmu4h_lys@163.com.
authors.forename: Yong-Shuang
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Da-Ye
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zheng
mesh_terms: D044466:Asian People / Q000235:genetics; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D015331:Cohort Studies; D019175:DNA Methylation / Q000235:genetics*; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D011379:Prognosis; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D025521:Tumor Suppressor Proteins / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: C411762:RASSF1 protein, human; D025521:Tumor Suppressor Proteins