title: Prognostic and clinical significance of claudin-4 in gastric cancer: a meta-analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The current reports on the association of claudin-4 expression with gastric cancer outcome were inconsistent. Thus, we conducted a meta-analysis to assess the association of claudin-4 expression with the prognosis and clinical parameters more precisely.
  
  
  METHODS
  Systematic searches on PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library prior to December 2014 were performed. The pooled hazard ratio (HR) with its 95 % confidence interval (95 %CI) was used to assess the prognostic value of claudin-4 expression with gastric cancer patients, and the pooled odds ratio (OR) with its 95 %CI was used to assess the association with clinical parameters.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Nine studies with a total of 1265 gastric cancer patients were included. Overall, the pooled results showed that over-expression of claudin-4 was associated with a poor survival in gastric cancer patients (HR: 2.01, 95 % CI: 1.62-2.50). Over-expression of claudin-4 was also associated with advanced stage (OR: 1.96, 95 % CI: 1.08-3.56) and lymphoid node metastasis (OR: 1.72, 95 % CI: 1.05-2.81) of gastric cancer patients. No significant publication bias was found among the studies (P > 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This meta-analysis shows that over-expression of claudin-4 is associated with progress of gastric cancer and poor prognosis of gastric cancer patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, No. 1 People's Hospital of Nanning, 89 Qixing Rd, Nanning, 530022, China.
authors.forename: Jin-Xin
authors.initials: JX
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, No. 1 People's Hospital of Nanning, 89 Qixing Rd, Nanning, 530022, China.
authors.forename: Zhao-Yi
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, No. 1 People's Hospital of Nanning, 89 Qixing Rd, Nanning, 530022, China.
authors.forename: Jian-She
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, No. 1 People's Hospital of Nanning, 89 Qixing Rd, Nanning, 530022, China.
authors.forename: Hai-Chao
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, No. 1 People's Hospital of Nanning, 89 Qixing Rd, Nanning, 530022, China.
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hao
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, No. 1 People's Hospital of Nanning, 89 Qixing Rd, Nanning, 530022, China. nnliwenjing@163.com.
authors.forename: Wen-Jing
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism*; D062506:Claudin-4 / Q000378:metabolism*; D018450:Disease Progression; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D011379:Prognosis; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality; D015996:Survival Rate
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D062506:Claudin-4