title: Prognostic value of survivin in patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma: a meta-analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Numerous studies have focused on the role of survivin in non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (NHLs), but evidence regarding the prognostic value of survivin with respect to overall survival (OS) in NHL remains controversial. The aim of this study is to gain a better insight about the direct relationship between survivin expression and patients' survival statuses.
  
  
  METHODS
  Relevant publications addressing the association between survivin expression and OS in NHL patients were selected from PubMed, Embase, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), China National Knowledge Infrastructure Database (CNKI), China Science and Technology Journal Database (VIP), Wanfang Database and the Cochrane library. Studies were pooled and summary hazard ratios (HR) were calculated. Sensitivity analyses and publication bias were also conducted. Statistical analysis was performed by STATA 12.0 software.
  
  
  RESULTS
  12 studies met the inclusion criteria. Combined HRs suggested that survivin overexpression had an unfavorable impact on NHL patients' survival (HR=1.55, 95% CI=1.12-2.13, P=0.008). Subgroup analyses according to the studies categorized by histological type, ethnicity, cutoff scores and follow-up period were also conducted, and all the above analyses supported the stability of the prognostic role of survivin.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings suggest that survivin high expression might be a poor prognostic factor for patients with NHL. However, further large scale studies are needed to confirm these findings.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University Chengdu 610041, Sichuan, China.
authors.forename: Chuan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University Chengdu 610041, Sichuan, China.
authors.forename: Zhigang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University Chengdu 610041, Sichuan, China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University Chengdu 610041, Sichuan, China.
authors.forename: Huanling
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhu
keywords: Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma; meta-analysis; prognosis; survivin