AUTHOR=Du Jingwei , Feng Jun , Luo Deyan , Peng Lijuan 

TITLE=Prognostic and Clinical Significance of COX-2 Overexpression in Laryngeal Cancer: A Meta-Analysis

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Oncology

VOLUME=12

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/oncology/articles/10.3389/fonc.2022.854946

DOI=10.3389/fonc.2022.854946

ISSN=2234-943X

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Objective</title><p>Several studies were conducted to explore the clinical significance of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) overexpression in laryngeal cancer. However, the associations between COX-2 overexpression and clinicopathological characteristics of laryngeal cancer patients remained unclear. Here, we performed a meta-analysis to eva-TY -40luate the role of COX-2 overexpression in the risk, clinical progression, and progno\sis of laryngeal cancer.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>The eligible literature was obtained from PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) databases. Odds ratio (OR), risk ratio (RR), and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated to assess the strength of the associations, and <italic>I</italic><sup>2</sup> statistics were used to evaluate heterogeneity among studies. Publication bias was detected with Begg’s test and Egger’s test.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>A total of 47 eligible articles were included for the meta-analysis after screening. COX-2 expression levels in the laryngeal cancer patients were significantly higher than those in the normal controls (OR = 11.62, 95% CI: 6.96–19.40, <italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.05). The pooled results also showed that there were significant correlations between COX-2 overexpression and clinicopathological characteristics (tumor stage, OR = 3.26, 95% CI: 2.13–4.98, <italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.05; lymph node metastasis, in Asians, OR = 2.35, 95% CI: 1.53–3.60, <italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.05; recurrence, OR = 10.71, 95% CI: 3.54–32.38, <italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.05; T stage, in Asians, OR = 2.52, 95% CI: 1.66–3.83, <italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.05). In addition, significant correlations between COX-2 overexpression and overall survival of laryngeal cancer were found both in Asians and in Caucasians (total, HR = 1.73, 95% CI: 1.23–2.24, <italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.05; survival in Asians, HR = 2.59, 95% CI: 1.27–3.92, <italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.05; survival in Caucasians, HR = 1.59, 95% CI: 1.03–2.14, <italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.05).</p></sec><sec><title>Conclusions</title><p>The meta-analysis results suggested that COX-2 overexpression was significantly associated with the increased risk, worse clinicopathological progression, and poorer prognosis of laryngeal cancer.</p></sec>