Predictive value of β-catenin in bladder cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Ren, Jin; Yang, Yaodong; Peng, Taifang; Xu, Dong

Recently, some studies have suggested that the abnormal expression of β-catenin in bladder cancer (BC) is associated with the progression and survival of BC, but there are still some controversies. Hence, we elaborated on the relationship between β-catenin expression and BC through a systematic literature review and meta-analysis. As of March 2020, EMBASE, PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Science Direct/Elsevier, MEDLINE and CNKI were used for systematic literature retrieval to investigate the correlation between β-catenin expression and BC. Meta-analysis was performed using Review Manager and Stata software. Fourteen studies were included, including 865 BC tissues and 106 controls. Combined ORs were identified with 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) in a random- or fixed-effects model. We illustrated that there was a significant correlation between β-catenin and BC, that there was abnormally high expression of β-catenin in BC tissues compared with normal bladder tissues (P<0.05), and that the combined OR was 14.69[5.73, 37.65]. Furthermore, the aberrant expression rates of β-catenin in high-grade and invasive bladder neoplasm tissues were greater than those in low-grade and non-muscle-invasive bladder tissues (P<0.05), and the combined ORs were 0.31[0.23, 0.43] and 0.21[0.15, 0.29]. Finally, we found through meta-analysis that the higher the expression level of β-catenin, the shorter was the progression-free survival of patients with BC (P<0.05), and the combined OR was 2.74[1.22, 6.14]. This study suggests that the abnormal expression of β-catenin is associated with aggressive behavior and poor prognosis of BC, and β-catenin may be a molecular marker of the malignant degree and poor prognosis of BC.