Background: The aberrant regulation of MALAT1 has been indicated to be involved in various carcinogenic pathways contributing to the tumourigenesis and progression of cancers. The current meta-analysis summarized the research advances of MALAT1 functions and analyzed its prognostic value among multiple types of cancers.
Methods: Eligible studies were identified through retrieving the PubMed, Web of Science, and CNKI databases, up to Mar 1, 2018. 28 studies of 5436 patients and 36 studies of 3325 patients were enrolled in the meta-analysis to evaluate the association of MALAT1 expression with survival outcomes and clinical parameters.
Results: The results demonstrated that over-expression of MALAT1 may predict lymph node metastasis (pooled OR = 2.335, 95% CI 1.606-3.395, P = 0.000) and distant metastasis (pooled OR = 2.456, 95% CI 1.407-4.286, P = 0.002). Moreover, MALAT1 was also related with tumour size (pooled OR = 1.875, 95% CI 1.257-2.795, P = 0.002) and TNM stage (pooled OR = 2.034, 95% CI 1.111-3.724, P = 0.021). Additionally, elevated MALAT1 expression could predict poor OS (pooled HR = 2.298, 95% CI 1.953-2.704, P = 0.000), DFS (pooled HR = 2.036, 95% CI 1.240-3.342, P = 0.005), RFS (pooled HR = 2.491, 95% CI 1.505-4.123, P = 0.000), DSS (pooled HR = 2.098, 95% CI 1.372-3.211, P = 0.001) and PFS (pooled HR = 1.842, 95% CI 1.138-2.983, P = 0.013) in multivariate model. Importantly, subgroup analyses disclosed that increased MALAT1 expression had a poor OS among different cancer types (Estrogen-dependent cancer: pooled HR = 2.656, 95% CI 1.560-4.523; urological cancer: pooled HR = 1.952, 95% CI 1.189-3.204; glioma: pooled HR = 2.315, 95% CI 1.643-3.263; digestive cancer: pooled HR = 2.451, 95% CI 1.862-3.227).
Conclusions: The present findings demonstrated that MALAT1 may be a novel biomarker for predicting survival outcome, lymph node metastasis and distant metastasis.
Keywords: Carcinoma; LncRNA; MALAT1; Meta-analysis; Prognosis.