Background & aim: At present, numerous reports have shown that high/positive expression of tissue vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) may be associated with the prognosis of patients with ovarian cancer. However, their results still remained controversy. Thus, this meta-analysis was designed to analyze and assess the prognostic value of tissue VEGF expression in patients with ovarian cancer.
Method: We searched PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library and Web of Science to October, 2017. Hazard Ratio (HR) with its 95% confidence intervals (CIs) was used to evaluate the association between high/positive expression of tissue VEGF and the prognosis of ovarian cancer patients. All statistical analyses were performed using standard statistical procedures provided in RevMan 5.2.
Result: A total of 18 studies (including 1145 patients) were included for this meta-analysis. The positive/high expression of tissue VEGF had an obvious association with overall survival (OS) (HR 2.24, 95% CI 1.36-3.70; P=0.002), progression-free survival (PFS) (HR 1.60, 95% CI 1.11-2.31; P=0.01) and disease-free survival (DFS) (HR 3.49, 95% CI 1.27-9.56; P=0.02) of patients with ovarian cancer respectively.
Conclusion: The present meta-analysis indicated that positive/high expression of tissue VEGF may have a close association with survival of ovarian cancer.
Keywords: VEGF; ovarian cancer; prognosis.