MiR-200 family and cancer: From a meta-analysis view

Abstract The role of microRNAs (miRNAs) in cancer development was implicated as oncogene or tumor suppressor. One of the miRNA family, the miR-200 family, was mainly characterized as tumor suppressor. However, controversial results were reported. The associations between miR-200 family (consisting of five miRNAs: miR-141/200a/200b/200c/429) and cancer prognosis were inconsistent. Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis by searching PubMed and Embase databases for studies assessing the association between the expression of miR-200 family and patients' survival of cancers. Hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were extracted from the studies and pooled HRs was determined to evaluate the association. This meta-analysis comprised 58 articles with 8107 cancer patients. The overall analysis showed that patients with higher expression of miR-200 family were associated with worse survival (HR = 1.206, 95% CI: 1.115–1.305, p