title: Prognostic value of SOX2 in digestive tumors: a meta-analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Sex determine region Y-box 2 (SOX2) is involved in tumor onset and progress. However its prognostic value for survival in patients with digestive tumors remains controversial.
  
  
  METHODS
  Publications related to the prognostic significance of SOX2 in digestive tumors were included up to 1 Oct 2013. We computed the pooled hazard ratio and subgroup stratification analysis for overall survival (OS) by software Stata.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of eight studies met the inclusion criteria. The pooled results showed that high SOX2 level was not significantly associated with OS in digestive tumors with significant heterogeneity. We then performed a subgroup analysis according to tumor types and patients’ numbers. SOX2 over-expression was associated with a poor OS in hepatocellular carcinoma (HR, 2.56; 95%CI, 1.77–3.71; P=0.000) with no heterogeneity. While in gastric carcinoma, SOX2 over-expression was not associated with OS (HR, 0.83; 95%CI, 0.23–3.03; P=0.773) with obvious heterogeneity. In addition, the sample size affected the pooled results.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Taken together, our findings suggested that SOX2 expression was associated with a poor prognosis in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, while not for gastric carcinoma. The prognosis role for SOX2 in digestive tumors might vary from different tumor type and different pathology stage. Further large scale multicenter studies need to confirm these results.
authors.forename: Shuchen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: WeiXiang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Qi
authors.forename: Kun
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: ZhiHua
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Gan
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.forename: DaLiu
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Miu
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis*; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000201:enzymology; D004067:Digestive System Neoplasms / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000201:enzymology; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011379:Prognosis; D012307:Risk Factors; D055748:SOXB1 Transcription Factors / Q000032:analysis*; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000201:enzymology; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C527782:SOX2 protein, human; D055748:SOXB1 Transcription Factors