title: Question about Liu Y et al. entitled "Effect of c-erbB2 overexpression on prognosis in osteosarcoma: evidence from eight studies".
abstract: We read with great interest on the recent paper by Liu Y et al. "Effect of c-erbB2 overexpression on prognosis in osteosarcoma: evidence from eight studies" published online in Tumor Biology (Tumor Biol 5(9):8939-43, 2014). The investigators (Liu Y et al.) performed a meta-analysis to study the relationship between c-erbB2 expression and prognostic impact in patients with osteosarcoma. They conducted a comprehensive and detailed meta-analysis to reveal the prognostic role of c-erbB2 for osteosarcoma. As a result, eight studies with 411 osteosarcoma patients were involved to estimate the relationship. Positive expressions of c-erbB2 predicted poorer survival in osteosarcoma patients with the pooled RR of 1.53 (95 % CI 1.20-1.94, P = 0.0006). Finally, they concluded that c-erbB2 overexpression is related to poor prognostic of osteosarcoma and can be a useful clinical prognostic factor for those patients. Nevertheless, we have several queries which we would like to communicate with them.
authors.affiliation: Changning Hospital Of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Changning, 421500, Hunan, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xinsheng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: Changning Hospital Of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Changning, 421500, Hunan, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Fangwen
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: Changning Hospital Of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Changning, 421500, Hunan, People's Republic of China. liaoguoping1020@sina.com.|Department of Pharmacy, Zhujiang Hospital of Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510282, Guangdong, People's Republic of China. liaoguoping1020@sina.com.
authors.forename: Guoping
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Liao
mesh_terms: D001859:Bone Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D012516:Osteosarcoma / Q000378:metabolism*; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000096:biosynthesis*
chemical_list: D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases
keywords: Osteosarcoma; Prognosis; Question; c-erbB2