The prognostic value of CXC chemokine receptor 2 (CXCR2) in cancers: a meta-analysis

// Bingbing Qiao 1, * , Wenqin Luo 2, * , Yanna Liu 2, * , Jing Wang 3, # , Chuan Liu 2 , Zhao Liu 2 , Sizhe Chen 2 , Jingjing Gu 2 , Xiaolong Qi 3 and Tongwei Wu 2, 3 1 Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China 2 Department of General Surgery, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China 3 Department of Hepatobiliary Disease, The Affiliated (T.C.M) Hospital of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, China * These authors contributed equally to this work # Co-first author Correspondence to: Bingbing Qiao, email: popzxcbb@163.com Tongwei Wu, email: 445759131@qq.com Keywords: CXCR2; cancer; overall survival; recurrence-free survival; prognostic Received: February 07, 2017      Accepted: September 03, 2017      Epub: December 11, 2017      Published: March 13, 2018 ABSTRACT Background & Aims: Quite a few studies had investigated the correlation between CXC chemokine receptor 2 (CXCR2) and cancer. This meta-analysis was aimed to comprehensively summarize the previous studies and to explore the prognostic value of CXCR2 in patients with cancer. Materials and Methods: An adequate literature search in EMBASE and PubMed was conducted. Articles in English which have reported CXCR2 expression in patients and enough data to calculate hazard ratio (HR) were included. Effect estimates were analyzed with Review Manager 5.2. The endpoint was overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS). Result: Twelve studies from 10 publications with a total of 2,461 patients were identified. It was shown that high level of CXCR2 was significantly associated with poorer overall survival (OS) (HR = 1.69, 95% CI = 1.46–1.96, p < 0.0001, I 2 = 45%) and RFS (HR = 1.50, 95% CI = 1.25–1.80, p < 0.0001, I 2 = 6%). The analyses of different analysis models (univariate or multivariate models), sample size (< 300 or ≥ 300) and ethnicity (Asian and Caucasian) have indicated the negative impact of CXCR2 over-expression on survival of patients with cancer. Stratified by cancer type, high-expression of CXCR2 was associated with unfavorable OS in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma, lung cancer, pancreatic ductal carcinoma, clear-cell renal cell carcinoma and hepatocellular carcinoma; however, there was significant difference between high- and low-expression of CXCR2 in digestive tract cancer (esophageal adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma procession, resected esophageal carcinoma, esophageal cancer and gastric cancer). Conclusions: CXCR2 is an unfavorable predictor in terms of OS and RFS in patients with cancer except for digestive tract cancer and is related with poorer prognostic.