Abstract
BACKGROUND: MicroRNA-21(miR-21) is a type of single-stranded RNA molecule of 15-27 nucleotides in length. Many recent studies have shown that microRNA-21 could play a significant role as prognostic biomarker of carcinoma. However, the potential prognostic value of miR-21 in hematological malignancies, especially in B-cell neoplasms remains unclear. The aim of this meta-analysis is to summarize and analyze the associations between miR-21 expression, survival in patients with B-cell neoplasms, and the predicting role of miR-21 for prognosis in B-cell neoplasms. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The systematic literature retrieval was operated using the electronic databases (Web of Science, MEDLINE, OVID, EBSCO, Pubmed and Wiley Online Library) to identify eligible studies. A total of 9 studies containing 724 patients were included in this study. Pooled hazard ratios (HRs) and their 95% confidence intervals (95%CIs) were calculated to evaluate the prognostic value of microRNA-21 expression in patients with B-cell neoplasms. RESULTS: We found that higher miR-21 expression significantly correlated with worse over survival (OS) (HR=2.62, 95%CIs:1.43-3.80) and shorter DFS/PFS/TFS (HR=1.30, 95%CI:0.76-1.85) by the fixed-effects model. But for RFS, the result was difference (HR=0.76, 95%CI:0.60-0.93). In addition, we also performed subgroup analysis stratified by ethnicity, cancer types, sample size, follow-up appointments once a month, and sample types.By using subgroup analysis, our data showed that high expression of miR-21 was significantly associated with each subgroup parameter on OS. CONCLUSIONS: In summary, ourmeta-analysis indicates that higher expression of microRNA-21 may be associated with poor prognosis in B-cell neoplasms, and microRNA-21 may be a potentially useful biomarker for predicting prognosis in patients with B-cell neoplasms (Am J Transl Med 2019. 3:71-84)