title: Prognostic significance of Beclin-1 expression in colorectal cancer: a meta-analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Beclin-1 has recently been observed as an essential marker of autophagy in several cancers. However, the prognostic role of Beclin-1 in colorectal neoplasia remains controversial. Our study aimed to evaluate the potential association between Beclin-1 expression and the outcome of colorectal cancer patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  All related studies were systematically searched in Pubmed, Embase, Springer and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure databases (CNKI), and then a meta-analysis was performed to determine the association of Beclin-1 expression with clinical outcomes. Finally, a total of 6 articles were included in our analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Our data showed that high Beclin-1 expression in patients with CRC was associated with poor prognosis in terms of tumor distant metastasis (OR=2.090, 95%CI=1.061-4.119, p=0.033) and overall survival (RR=1.422, 95%CI=1.032-1.959, p=0.031). However, we did not found any correlation between Beclin-1 over-expression and tumor differentiation (OR=1.711, 95%CI=0.920-3.183, p=0.090). In addition, there was no evidence of publication bias as suggested by Egger's tests for tumor distant metastasis (p=1.000), differentiation (p=1.000) and OS (p=0.308).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our present meta-analysis indicated that elevated Beclin-1 expression iss associated with tumor metastasis and a poor prognosis in patients with CRC. Beclin-1 might serve as an efficient prognostic indicator in CRC, and could be a new molecular target in CRC therapy.
authors: Department of General Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, China E-mail : strexboy@163.com, zhaohong600@sina.com.
authors: Ye
authors: Y
authors: Han
authors: Xiao-Feng
authors: XF
authors: Xue
authors: Hu-Gang
authors: HG
authors: Shen
authors: Xiao-Bo
authors: XB
authors: Guo
authors: Xu
authors: X
authors: Wang
authors: Bin
authors: B
authors: Yuan
authors: Xing-Po
authors: XP
authors: Guo
authors: Yu-Ting
authors: YT
authors: Kuang
authors: Qiao-Ming
authors: QM
authors: Zhi
authors: Hong
authors: H
authors: Zhao
mesh_terms: D051017:Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D000071186:Beclin-1; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000235:genetics; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology*; D015870:Gene Expression / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D011379:Prognosis
chemical_list: D051017:Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins; C491997:BECN1 protein, human; D000071186:Beclin-1; D008565:Membrane Proteins