文摘
Vascular endothelial growth factor-C (VEGF-C) is considered as a prime mediator of lymphangiogenesis and has been implicated in carcinogenesis and metastasis. Various studies examined the relationship between VEGF-C overexpression and the clinical outcome in patients with gastric cancer, but yielded conflicting results. Electronic databases updated to July 2013 were searched to find relevant studies. A meta-analysis was conducted with eligible studies which quantitatively evaluated the relationship between VEGF-C overexpression and survival of patients with gastric cancer. Survival data were aggregated and quantitatively analyzed. We performed a meta-analysis of 13 studies that evaluated the correlation between VEGF-C overexpression and survival in patients with gastric cancer. Combined hazard ratios suggested that VEGF-C overexpression had an unfavorable impact on overall survival (OS) (hazard ratio (HR)--.38, 95?% confidence interval (CI)--.08-.68), but not disease-free survival (DFS) (HR--.25, 95?% CI--.89-.62) in patients with gastric cancer. No significant heterogeneity (P--.132) was observed among 11 studies for OS and among 5 studies for DFS (P--.105). VEGF-C overexpression indicates a poor prognosis for overall survival, but not disease-free survival in patients with gastric cancer.