title: The clinical significance of snail protein expression in gastric cancer: a meta-analysis.
abstract: Snail is a typical transcription factor that could induce epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and cancer progression. There are some related reports about the clinical significance of snail protein expression in gastric cancer. However, the published results were not completely consistent. This study was aimed to investigate snail expression and clinical significance in gastric cancer.
  
  
  
  A systematic review of PubMed, CNKI, Weipu, and Wanfang database before March 2015 was conducted. We established an inclusion criterion according to subjects, method of detection, and results evaluation of snail protein. Meta-analysis was conducted using RevMan4.2 software. And merged odds ratio (OR) and 95 % CI (95 % confidence interval) were calculated. Also, forest plots and funnel plot were used to assess the potential of publication bias. A total of 10 studies were recruited. The meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the positive rate of snail protein expression. OR and 95 % CI for different groups were listed below: (1) gastric cancer and para-carcinoma tissue [OR = 6.15, 95 % CI (4.70, 8.05)]; (2) gastric cancer and normal gastric tissue [OR = 17.00, 95 % CI (10.08, 28.67)]; (3) non-lymph node metastasis and lymph node metastasis [OR = 0.40, 95 % CI (0.18, 0.93)]; (4) poor differentiated cancer, highly differentiated cancer, and moderate cancer [OR = 3.34, 95 % CI (2.22, 5.03)]; (5) clinical stage TI + TII and stage TIII + TIV [OR = 0.38, 95 % CI (0.23, 0.60)]; (6) superficial muscularis and deep muscularis [OR = 0.18, 95 % CI (0.11, 0.31)].
  
  
  
  Our results indicated that the increase of snail protein expression may play an important role in the carcinogenesis, progression, and metastasis of gastric cancer. And this result might provide instruction for the diagnosis, therapy, and prognosis of gastric cancer.
authors.affiliation: Medical College, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430065, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoya
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Medical College, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430065, China. entry2003@126.com.
authors.forename: Jinjun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Tianyou Hospital, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430064, China.
authors.forename: Ling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Texas Advanced Computing Center, University of Texas at Austin, 10100 Burnet Road, Austin, TX, 78758, USA.
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Medical College, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430065, China.
authors.forename: Lili
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Puren Hospital, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430081, China.
authors.forename: Hongyan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: Puren Hospital, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430081, China.
authors.forename: Zexiong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: MidSouth Bioinformatics Center, Department of Information Science, George Washington Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology and Joint Bioinformatics Graduate Program, University of Arkansas at Little Rock and University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, 2801 S. University Avenue, Little Rock, AR, 72204, USA.
authors.forename: Jack Y
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA.
authors.forename: Hamid R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Arabnia
authors.affiliation: Department of Statistics and Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard University, One Oxford St., Cambridge, 02138, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Jun S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: MidSouth Bioinformatics Center, Department of Information Science, George Washington Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology and Joint Bioinformatics Graduate Program, University of Arkansas at Little Rock and University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, 2801 S. University Avenue, Little Rock, AR, 72204, USA.
authors.forename: Mary Qu
authors.initials: MQ
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Medical College, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430065, China. Youpingd@gmail.com.|Department of Internal Medicine and Rush University Cancer Center, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL, 60612, USA. Youpingd@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Youping
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Deng
mesh_terms: D005753:Gastric Mucosa / Q000378:metabolism*; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D053263:Gene Regulatory Networks; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011379:Prognosis; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000235:genetics; D000071250:Snail Family Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D013270:Stomach / Q000473:pathology; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D000071250:Snail Family Transcription Factors
keywords: Gastric cancer; Meta-analysis; Snail