title: Adiponectin is associated with poor prognosis in carcinoma patients: evidence from a meta-analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Studies have come to conflicting conclusions about whether adiponectin (APN) expression is associated with cancer prognosis. To help resolve this question, we meta-analyzed the available evidence.
  
  
  METHODS
  PubMed, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, the Chinese Biological Medical Database and the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure Database were systematically searched to identify all eligible studies examining APN expression and prognosis for patients with any type of cancer. Pooled hazard ratios (HRs) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) related to overall survival (OS) or disease-free survival (DFS) were calculated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Ten studies involving 999 patients were meta-analyzed. Analysis across all patients revealed no significant association between high/positive APN expression and DFS, but they did show a significant association between high/positive APN expression and OS (HR 1.51, 95 %CI 1.21 to 1.89). Subgroup analysis showed that high/positive APN expression in non-Asians was significantly associated with both DFS (HR 1.36, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.80) and OS (HR 1.53, 95 %CI 1.20 to 1.96), but no such associations were observed in Asians. In addition, high/positive APN expression was significantly associated with OS across all patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HR 1.89, 95 %CI 1.20 to 2.98).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The available evidence suggests that high/positive APN expression is associated with poor prognosis for patients with various carcinomas, especially for non-Asian cancer patients and for all patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. These findings should be confirmed and extended in large, well-designed studies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, The Cancer Institute, Affiliated Tumor Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, No. 71, Hedi Road, Nanning, Guangxi, 530021, P.R. China. yejiaxiang2013@163.com.
authors.forename: Jiaxiang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, The Cancer Institute, Affiliated Tumor Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, No. 71, Hedi Road, Nanning, Guangxi, 530021, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Zhongguo
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, 530021, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, The Cancer Institute, Affiliated Tumor Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, No. 71, Hedi Road, Nanning, Guangxi, 530021, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Jinyan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, The Cancer Institute, Affiliated Tumor Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, No. 71, Hedi Road, Nanning, Guangxi, 530021, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Sufei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mao
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, The Cancer Institute, Affiliated Tumor Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, No. 71, Hedi Road, Nanning, Guangxi, 530021, P.R. China. liangrui011@126.com.
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Liang
mesh_terms: D052242:Adiponectin / Q000097:blood*; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000401:mortality; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models
chemical_list: D052242:Adiponectin; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor