title: β-catenin mutation is correlated with a favorable prognosis in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.
abstract: The β-catenin gene is frequently mutated in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and has long been thought to be one of the major oncogenes involved in the hepatocarcinogenesis. The prognostic role of β-catenin mutation in HCC remains unclear. To address this issue, a search for relevant studies was performed in the PubMed, Embase and Web of Science databases. The pooled effect was calculated from the available data to evaluate the correlation of β-catenin mutation with overall survival rate and tumor clinicopathological features in patients with HCC. The pooled odds ratio (OR) was calculated using the Mantel-Haenszel model for fixed effects. Three studies met the inclusion criteria. A total of 618 cases were included, and β-catenin mutation was identified in 104 of them. The meta-analysis revealed that the presence of β-catenin mutation (n=104), compared with the control group (n=514), was correlated with a longer overall survival rate [OR, 0.33; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.21-0.53; P<0.00001] in patients with HCC. No significant heterogeneity was found among the eligible studies (I2=0%; P=0.72). β-catenin mutation was correlated with a relatively lower rate of hepatitis B virus infection (OR, 0.36; 95% CI, 0.21-0.61; P=0.0002), improved tumor differentiation (OR, 0.32; 95% CI, 0.19-0.56; P<0.0001) and a lower tumor-node-metastasis stage (I+II) (OR, 0.23; 95% CI, 0.14-0.38; P<0.00001). These findings suggest that β-catenin mutation may predict a favorable prognosis in patients with HCC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200040, P.R. China ; Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Zheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Yuan-Yuan
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Sheng
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Xiao-Mei
authors.initials: XM
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200040, P.R. China ; Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Chao-Qun
authors.initials: CQ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200040, P.R. China ; Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Xiang-Yu
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200040, P.R. China ; Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, P.R. China.
authors.forename: X U
authors.initials: XU
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Jin-Wang
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Kai-Li
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200040, P.R. China ; Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Qiong-Zhu
authors.initials: QZ
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200040, P.R. China ; Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Lun-Xiu
authors.initials: LX
authors.lastname: Qin
keywords: clinicopathological parameters; hepatocellular carcinoma; meta-analysis; mutation; prognosis; β-catenin