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In the last decade, osteopontin (OPN) was identified as one of the important proteins that promote the metastasis of tumor. However, the association between OPN overexpression and clinical outcome of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) was unclear. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of OPN in NSCLC patients. A total of 13 studies are included to explore the relationship between the OPN elevation and the overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) in NSCLC patients. We searched for related articles in PubMed, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and Cochrane Library databases, which were published before January 31, 2015. Hazard ratio (HR), odds ratio (OR), and 95% confidence interval (CI) in the high OPN expression group compared with the low OPN expression group were calculated and analyzed. Primary results were summarized by using a fixed-effects model or a random-effects model. The stratified analyses in subgroups were also performed. Thirteen cohort studies, which involved 1,630 patients, were included. Subgroup analyses were performed by area and test method of OPN. We found that OPN was significantly associated with poor OS (HR =2.20, 95% CI 1.71-2.83, P<0.001) and DFS (HR =2.11, 95% CI 1.62-2.74, P<0.001) in NSCLC patients. OPN overexpression tended to be associated with the presence of advanced tumor TNM stage (III and IV) (OR =2.57, 95% CI 1.61-4.11, P<0.001). The Egger's test suggested that there was no publication bias in OS studies (P=0.062) and DFS studies (P=0.740). These data indicate that OPN seems to have a significant predictive potential in estimating survival in NSCLC.

Objective(s): This article was undertaken to investigate the association between tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) G308A polymorphism and interferon-γ (INF-γ) A874T polymorphism and risk of preterm birth (PTB) by performing a meta-analysis of available studies., Study Design: Articles were chosen based on PubMed, EMBASE, Web of science, and China Biology Medicine (CBM) databases with no language restriction from their inceptions to 1 March, 2014. Specific inclusion criteria were used to evaluate articles. Meta-analysis was performed by using a random or fixed effect model with STATA 11.0 software. We estimated the summary odds ratios (ORs) with its corresponding 95% confidence interval (95%CI) to assess the association., Results: 21 eligible case-control studies with a total of 2103 cases and 5070 controls were finally included into this meta-analysis. Pooled analysis showed that A allele of TNF-α G308A was not associated with increased PTB risk (OR=0.84, 95%CI: 0.65-1.07, p=0.167 for G vs. A). Stratifying analysis for ethnicity and different definition of PTB also indicated that A allele was not associated with increased PTB risk. However, the meta-analysis showed that INF-γ A874T polymorphism was associated with the increased risk of PTB (OR=1.14, 95%CI: 1.11-1.73, p=0.004 for A vs. T). Stratifying analysis was not performed due to the small sample size., Conclusion(s): TNF-α G308A polymorphism was not associated with an increased risk of PTB, but INF-γ A874T polymorphism may contribute to increasing susceptibility to PTB. Detection of polymorphism of INF-γ A874T might be a promising biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis of preterm delivery., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The aim of this study was to explore the association between follicle stimulating hormone receptor (FSHR) Thr307Ala and Asn680Ser polymorphisms and susceptibility to polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). A comprehensive literature search for relevant studies was conducted on Google Scholar, PubMed, the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and the Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM). This meta-analysis was performed using the STATA 11.0 software and the pooled odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was calculated. Ten case-control studies were included in this meta-analysis. However, meta-analysis results showed no association between both FSHR Thr307Ala polymorphism and Asn680Ser polymorphism and susceptibility to PCOS. Stratified analysis of ethnicities also showed no association. In conclusion, the present study suggested that the FSHR polymorphisms were not associated with an increased risk of PCOS and larger-scale studies of populations are needed to explore the roles played by FSHR polymorphisms during the pathogenesis of PCOS., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)