Prognostic Value of β-catenin Expression in Breast Cancer Patients: a Meta-analysis

Abstract

Background: β-catenin plays a crucial role in the progression of breast cancer (BC) and a prognostic role of in BC patients has been widely reported. However, controversy still remains. Materials and Methods: Identical search strategies were used to search relevant literature in electronic databases updated to July 1, 2014. Individual hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were extracted and pooled HRs with 95%CIs were used to evaluate the strength of association between positive β-catenin expression in different subcellular locations and survival results of BC patients. Subgroup and meta-regression analyses were performed to explore heterogeneity. Funnel plots of Begg's and Egger's linear regression test were used to investigate publication bias. Heterogeneity and sensitivity were also assessed. All the work was completed using STATA. Results: A total of 2,204 patients from 12 evaluative studies were finally included. Pooled HRs and 95%CIs suggested that β-catenin expression in cytoplasm/nucleus had an unfavorable impact on both overall survival (OS) (

Prognostic significance of β-catenin expression in patients with non-small cell lung cancer: a meta-analysis

“…Zeng et al (52) also suggested that altered expression of β-catenin could serve as a predicative factor of poor prognosis for patients with esophageal carcinoma. Zhang et al (50) and Chen et al (53) have demonstrated that positive β-catenin expression in cytoplasm/nucleus was significantly associated with poor prognosis of breast cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma respectively. Combined with our meta-analysis, these findings suggest that aberrant β-catenin expression predicts a poor survival in a wide variety of malignant tumors.…”

“…We carried out a meta-analyses of β-catenin expression in NSCLC patients based on 24 studies (Table 1), while Yang et al (46) recently reported a meta-analyses of expression in NSCLC patients based on 15 studies. Membranous β-catenin that is directly associated with E-cadherin and α-catenin is involved in the stabilization of cell-cell adhesion, whereas cytoplasmic and nuclear β-catenin are important mediators of the canonical Wnt signaling cascade (47)(48)(49)(50). The association between overall β-catenin expression and prognosis of NSCLC patients is controversial (17,18).…”

FH535, a β-catenin pathway inhibitor, represses pancreatic cancer xenograft growth and angiogenesis

“…Previous meta-analyses have proven that nuclear β-catenin overexpression predicts progressive disease and unfavorable survival in colorectal cancer [25], lung cancer [26, 27], hepatocellular cancer [28], breast cancer [29], esophageal cancer [30], and gastric cancer [31]. As the prognostic value of β-catenin in pancreatic cancer remains controversial, a meta-analysis was needed to explore the issue clearly.…”

Immunohistochemical Evaluation of β-catenin Marker in Papillary Thyroid Cancer Clinicopathologic Behavior

“…Other gene mutations like RAS and structural changes including insertion/deletion and translocations of RET, PAX8/PPAR have been determined to play a role in clinical course of papillary thyroid carcinoma (4)(5)(6). In recent decade proto-oncogene effect of wnt/ β -catenin pathway and its role in human cancers have been determined (7)(8)(9)(10). Role of β -catenin in propagation, renewal and regeneration of epithelial tumors have also been highlighted.…”