Is E-cadherin immunoexpression a prognostic factor for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC)? A systematic review and meta-analysis

SummaryWe summarized existing evidence about whether the aberrant E-cadherin expression is a prognostic factor for patients with HNSCC. Identifying relevant articles, filtrating studies and extracting data were independently conducted by two reviewers. The quality of eligible studies was assessed according to systematic score criteria. Associations between aberrant E-cadherin expression and overall survival (OS) or disease-free survival (DFS) were summarized by hazard ratio (HR) estimates. Random or fixed effects models were used to investigate the effect of E-cadherin across the studies. According to the multivariate and univariate analyses, the meta-analysis of the included studies gave a statistically significant pooled HR for OS in HNSCC [the pooled HR = 2.533; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.971–3.254]. In addition, the subgroup analyses showed that the pooled HR of each subgroup also exhibited statistical significance according to the subpopulations (Asian and other subpopulations), treatments (surgery and other treatments), locations of primary tumors (oral cavity and other subsites), and data sources of HR (reported and estimated HR). Similar to the results of OS, the analysis of four included trials showed that the aberrant E-cadherin expression could predict low DFS. Meanwhile, a cumulative meta-analysis showed that the pooled HR became statistically significant. However, a meta-regression analysis showed that the OS was not statistically significant with the cutoff values of the included studies. Our study gives an important piece of evidence that aberrant E-cadherin expression was associated with a poor prognosis in patients with HNSCC.