Prognostic significance of insulin-like growth factor-II mRNA-binding protein 3 in urological cancers: a systemic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Purpose: Insulin-like growth factor II mRNA-binding protein 3 (IMP3) is an oncofetal protein expressed in diverse malignancies. This study aimed to investigate the prognostic value of IMP3 in urological cancers.Methods: Eligible studies were sought in PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Collaboration and Wanfang databases. Pooled hazard ratios (HRs) with their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to assess the prognostic value of IMP3 in patients with urological cancers.Results: Eight studies including 2,219 patients were enrolled in this meta-analysis. The pooled results showed that IMP3 expression was an indicator of poorer prognosis in patients with urological cancers in terms of overall survival (OS) (HR 2.19, 95% CI 1.35-3.55), disease-specific survival (DSS) (HR 2.10, 95% CI 1.53-2.89), disease-free survival (DFS) (HR 1.49, 95% CI 1.18-1.87) and metastasis-free survival (MFS) (HR 3.80, 95% CI 2.27-6.34). Subgroup analyses revealed that IMP3 was significantly correlated with poorer prognosis in patients with kidney cancer or urothelial cancer in terms of OS (HR 2.52; 95% CI 1.55-4.10), DSS (HR 2.11; 95% CI 1.51-2.95), DFS (HR 2.01; 95% CI 1.40-2.88) and MFS (HR 3.80; 95% CI 2.27-6.34), whereas this association was not found in patients with prostate cancer (OS, HR 1.09, 95% CI 0.45-2.63; DSS, HR 2.06, 95% CI 0.73-5.80; DFS, HR 1.20, 95% CI 0.88-1.62).Conclusions: IMP3 expression might be an indicator of poor prognosis in patients with kidney cancer or urothelial cancer. Further large prospective and welldesigned studies utilizing better IMP3 expression assessment processes, are needed to confirm these results especially in patients with prostate cancer.