Clinicopathological and prognostic significance of chemokine receptor CXCR4 overexpression in patients with esophageal cancer: a meta-analysis

The prognostic significance of CXC chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR4) for survival of patients with esophageal cancer remains controversial. To investigate its expression impact on clinicopathological features and survival outcome, a meta-analysis was performed. A comprehensive search in the PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science (up to October 8, 2013) was performed for relevant studies using multiple search strategies. Correlation between CXCR4 expression and clinicopathological features and overall survival (OS) was analyzed. A total of 1,055 patients with esophageal cancer from seven studies were included. The pooled odds ratios (ORs) which indicated CXCR4 expression was associated with tumor depth (OR = 0.35, confidence interval (CI) = 0.27–0.47, P < 0.00001), status of lymph node (OR = 0.36, CI = 0.21–0.61, P < 0.0002), TNM (tumor, node, metastasis) stage (OR = 0.38, CI = 0.25–0.56, P < 0.00001), and histological type (OR = 1.81, CI = 1.07–3.05, P = 0.03). Poor overall survival of esophageal cancer was found to be significantly related to CXCR4 overexpression (hazard ratio (HR) 1.49, 95 % CI = 1.24–1.80, P < 0.0001), whereas combined ORs exhibited that CXCR4 expression has no correlation with gender or tumor differentiation. Based on the published studies, CXCR4 overexpression in patients with esophageal cancer indicated worse survival outcome and was associated with common clinicopathological poor prognostic factors.