Gliomas are the most common primary brain tumors. This meta-analysis aimed to systematically evaluate the relationship between CD147 expression in tissues and the clinicopathological features of patients with glioma. We searched PubMed (1966-2016), EMBASE (1980-2016), Cochrane Library (1996-2016), Web of Science (1945-2016), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (1982-2016), and Wan Fang databases (1988-2016). Quality assessment of the literature was performed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale, with Revman 5.3 and Stata 14.0 for analysis. In total, 1806 glioma patients from 19 studies were included, and patients with CD147 overexpression had poorer overall survival [hazard ratio (HR) = 2.211, P < 0.0001], a higher risk of recurrence (HR = 2.20, P = 0.0025), and a lower 5-year survival rate [odds ratio (OR) 0.12; 95% CI 0.08-0.19; P < 0.00001]. We observed significant differences in CD147 expression when comparing glioma tissues versus non-cancerous brain tissues (OR 20.42; 95% CI 13.94-29.91; P < 0.00001), tumor grades III-IV versus grades I-II (OR 5.88, 95% CI 4.15-8.34; P < 0.00001), and large versus small tumors (OR 1.58, 95% CI 1.04-2.40; P = 0.03). We also observed a significant correlation with matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) 2 (OR 39.11, 95% CI 11.47-133.34; P < 0.00001) and MMP9 (OR 13.35, 95% CI 4.67-38.18; P < 0.00001). CD147 expression did not differ based on patient's age (young vs. old, P = 0.89) or gender (female vs. male, P = 0.57). CD147 expression may be a potential prognostic biomarker for poorer overall and relapse-free survival, and may affect the 5-year survival rate in glioma patients. CD147 expression is also closely correlated with poor clinical characteristics in glioma patients.
Keywords: CD147; Glioma; Meta-analysis.