Clinical and Prognostic Significance of CD117 in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: A Systemic Meta-Analysis

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the relationship of cluster of differentiation 117 (CD117) expression with the clinicopathological characteristics and the prognosis in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). No meta-analysis concerning the correlation of CD117 expression with clinical and prognostic values of the patients with NSCLC is reported. A systematic literature search was conducted to achieve eligible studies. The combined odds ratios (ORs) or hazard ratios (HRs: multivariate Cox analysis) with their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated in this analysis. Final 17 eligible studies with 4,893 NSCLC patients using immunohistochemical detection were included in this meta-analysis. CD117 expression was not correlated with gender (male vs. female), clinical stage (stages 3–4 vs. stages 1–2), tumor grade (grade 3 vs. grades 1–2), T-stage (T-stages 3–4 vs. T-stages 0–2), distal metastasis, and disease-free survival (DFS) of NSCLC (all <i>p</i> values &#x3e;0.05). CD117 expression was associated with lymph node metastasis (positive vs. negative: OR = 0.74, 95% CI = 0.56–0.97, <i>p</i> = 0.03), histological type (adenocarcinoma (AC) versus squamous cell carcinoma (SCC): OR = 1.74, 95% CI = 1.26–2.39, <i>p</i> = 0.001), and a worse overall survival (OS) (HR = 1.89, 95% CI = 1.22–2.92, <i>p</i> = 0.004). The expression of CD117 was significantly higher in AC than in SCC. CD117 may be an independent prognostic indicator for worse OS in NSCLC.