Background: CXC chemokine receptor 3 (CXCR3) plays a critical role in tumorigenesis, and CXCR3 expression is associated with prognosis in many cancers. Recently, CXCR3 expression is recognized as a potential prognostic factor for patients with gastric cancer. In this study, we analyzed the prognostic significance of CXCR3 expression in gastric cancer.
Methods: We conducted a meta-analysis after selecting eligible studies through a literature search. We calculated pooled results to assess the associations between CXCR3 expression and overall survival (OS) and clinicopathological factors for gastric cancer.
Results: The pooled hazard ratio (HR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) between high expression of CXCR3 and OS was 0.46 (95% CI 0.30-0.71, P<0.001), suggesting that high expression of CXCR3 was associated with a favorable OS. High expression of CXCR3 was significantly correlated with younger age [odds ratio (OR) 0.67, 95% CI: 0.49-0.91, P=0.011], lower tumor grade (OR 0.46, 95% CI: 0.29-0.73, P=0.001), absence of lymph node metastasis (OR 0.47, 95% CI: 0.31-0.71, P<0.001), and lower Tumor-Node-Metastasis stage (OR 0.51, 95% CI: 0.35-0.74, P<0.001).
Conclusions: High expression of CXCR3 was associated with better survival and may be a potential prognostic factor for patients with gastric cancer patients.
Keywords: CXC chemokine receptor 3 (CXCR3); gastric cancer; meta-analysis; prognosis.
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