Association of miR-203 Expression with Prognostic Value in Patients with Esophageal Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Objective: This study aims to investigate the association between miR-203 expression and the prognostic value in patients with esophageal cancer by the method of systematic review and meta-analysis.
Methods: We searched PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and Cochrane Library to collect studies on the relationship between miR-203 expression and the prognostic value of esophageal cancer up to July 2023. Stata 15.0 statistical software was used for data analysis. Hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were used as effect sizes.
Results: A total of 6 studies were included in this review, including 476 patients with esophageal cancer. The results showed that miR-203 low expression was associated with worse overall survival (OS) in patients with esophageal cancer compared with miR-203 high expression (HR = 2.80, 95%CI: 1.99 ∼ 3.93, p  < 0.001). The results of Egger's ( p  = 0.154) and Begg's Tests ( p  = 0.221) indicated no obvious publication bias. Sensitivity analysis verified the robustness of the results obtained in this study.
Conclusion: The expression of miR-203 is significantly correlated with the prognostic value in patients with esophageal cancer. Esophageal cancer patients with high expression of miR-203 had better prognosis than those with low expression of miR-203. Due to the limited studies included in this meta-analysis, more trials are needed to confirm the conclusions of this study in the future.