Prognostic significance of SF3B1 mutations in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes: A meta-analysis

Splicing factor 3B subunit 1 (SF3B1) is a complex takes part in intron splicing of pre-mRNA and mutations within it have been reported frequently in myeloid malignancies including myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). However, its prognostic value has been controversial. Hence, we aimed this meta-analysis to investigate the prognostic effect of SF3B1 mutations in patients with MDS. Several electronic databases were searched in of EMBASE, PubMed, the Cochrane Library and Web of Science (published up to November 2017) to obtain eligible studies. The pooled Hazard Ratio (HRs) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for overall survival (OS) and leukemia-free survival (LFS) as the primary and secondary endpoint, respectively, were chosen and extracted to determine the prognostic impact of SF3B1 mutations and to compare SF3B1 mutations to those with wild-type. Nine cohort studies with a total of 2259 patients were obtained, and the pooled HRs for OS was 0.93 (95% CI: 0.56-1.52, p-value = 0.78) and revealed no significant effect on overall survival of MDS patients by random effect models. Our meta-analysis suggested that SF3B1 has no impact on OS of patients with MDS, however, an adequately designed prospective study with a large number of patients with different type of SF3B1 mutations is needed to confirm these results. Additionally, Begg's and Egger's tests did not show any publication bias.