Clinicopathological and Prognostic Significance of CD24 Overexpression in Patients with Gastric Cancer: A Meta-Analysis

Objective: The prognostic significance of CD24 expression for survival in patients with gastric cancer remains controversial. We conducted a meta-analysis to investigate the impact of CD24 expression on clinicopathological features and survival outcomes in gastric cancer. Methods: A comprehensive literature search of the electronic databases PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI; up to April 8, 2014) was performed for relevant studies using multiple search strategies. Correlations between CD24 expression and clinicopathological features and overall survival (OS) were analyzed. Results: A total of 1,041 patients with gastric cancer from 9 studies were included. The pooled odds ratios (ORs) indicated CD24 expression was associated with tumor depth (OR=0.45, 95% confidence interval [CI] 50.32-0.63; P<0.00001), status of lymph nodes (OR=0.40, 95% CI=0.25-0.64; P=0.0001) and tumor node metastasis (TNM) stage (OR=0.56, 95% CI=0.41-0.77; P=0.0003). The pooled hazard ratio (HR) for OS showed overexpression of CD24 reduced OS in gastric cancer (HR=1.99, 95% CI=1.29-3.07, P=0.002). Whereas, combined ORs showed that CD24 expression had no correlation with tumor differentiation or Lauren classifications. Conclusion: CD24 overexpression in patients with gastric cancer indicated worse survival outcomes and was associated with common clinicopathological poor prognostic factors.