AUTHOR=Wang Yuhang , Jia Zirui , Gao Jiacheng , Zhou Tingting , Zhang Xiangwen , Zu Guo 

TITLE=Clinicopathological and Prognostic Value of USP22 Expression in Gastric Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis and Database Validation

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Surgery

VOLUME=9

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/surgery/articles/10.3389/fsurg.2022.920595

DOI=10.3389/fsurg.2022.920595

ISSN=2296-875X

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Background</title><p>It has been reported that there is a correlation between the level of ubiquitin-specific protease 22 (USP22) and the clinicopathological parameters and prognosis of gastric cancer (GC) patients, but the conclusions are inconsistent. Hence, a meta-analysis must be conducted to clarify the relationship between USP22 expression and clinicopathological and prognostic value of GC patients to provide more accurate evidence.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>According to the predetermined selection criteria, systematic file retrieval was performed. The hazard ratio (HR) or odds ratio (OR) and its 95% confidence interval (CI) were used to evaluate the relationship between USP22 expression and clinicopathological and prognostic value of GC patients.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>In a total of 802 patients, those with GC were finally included in 6 studies. The pooled results demonstrated that the expression of USP22 was significantly increased in GC tissues compared with control tissues (OR = 9.947, 95% CI, 6.074–16.291, <italic>P</italic> = 0.000), and USP22 expression was related to lymph node metastasis (OR = 2.415, 95% CI, 1.082, <italic>P</italic> = 0.031), distant metastasis (OR = 3.956, 95% CI, 1.365–11.464, <italic>P</italic> = 0.011) and TNM stage (OR = 2.973, 95% CI, 1.153–7.666, <italic>P</italic> = 0.024). Nevertheless, the expression of USP22 was not correlated with gender (OR = 1.202, 95% CI, 0.877–1.648, <italic>P</italic> = 0.253), age (OR = 1.090, 95% CI, 0.811–1.466, <italic>P</italic> = 0.568), tumor size (OR = 0.693,95% CI, 0.348–1.380, <italic>P</italic> = 0.297), tumor differentiation (OR = 1.830, 95%CI, 0.948–3.531, <italic>P</italic> = 0.072) and depth of invasion (OR = 2.320, 95% CI, 0.684–7.871, <italic>P</italic> = 0.177). Moreover, a high expression of USP22 predicted a poor overall survival (OS) in GC patients (HR = 2.012, 95% CI, 1.522–2.658, <italic>P</italic> = 0.000). The database of Kaplan–Meier plotter confirmed that a high expression of USP22 was correlated with poor prognostics in GC patients (HR = 1.41, 95% CI, 1.18–1.68, <italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.01).</p></sec><sec><title>Conclusion</title><p>USP22 overexpression in GC tissues is positively related to lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis and TNM stage and indicates a poor clinical outcome of GC patients, but it is not associated with age, gender, depth of invasion, tumor differentiation and tumor size of GC patients.</p><p><bold>Systematic Review Registration</bold>: <ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/</ext-link>, identifier: 338361.</p></sec>