title: Chemokine receptor CXCR4 expression and lung cancer prognosis: a meta-analysis.
abstract: The chemokine receptor CXCR4 is a G protein-coupled receptor that plays an important role in several biological processes, such as trafficking and homeostasis of immune cells (like T lymphocytes), alteration of cell skeleton rearrangement and cell migration. To investigate whether the CXCR4 protein impacts on lung cancer prognosis, a meta-analysis was performed. Our meta-analysis study involved 2,037 lung cancer patients from 24 studies by a comprehensive search from PubMed, Embase and CNKI databases up to September 2014. Odds ratio (OR) or hazard ratio (HR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) were used to evaluate the relationship. We found that the CXCR4 expression was significantly associated with lymph node metastasis (OR = 3.79, 95% CI: 2.15-6.68), distant metastasis (OR = 3.67, 95% CI: 1.84-7.32), tumor stage (OR = 2.78, 95% CI: 1.77-4.39) and overall survival (HR = 1.63, 95% CI: 1.16-2.30). In conclusion, CXCR4 might be a new prognostic biomarker, and it might become a new diagnosis and therapeutic target in lung cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Thoracic Surgery, Zhejiang Cancer Hospital Hangzhou, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jin-Xiao
authors.initials: JX
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Dalian Medical University Dalian, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Medicine, Taizhou University Medical School Taizhou, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: Department of Thoracic Surgery, Zhejiang Cancer Hospital Hangzhou, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xin-Ming
authors.initials: XM
authors.lastname: Zhou
keywords: CXCR4; lung cancer; meta-analysis; prognosis