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Phosphatase and tensin homolog protein may be linked to lymph node metastasis and tumor node metastasis staging in nonsmall cell lung cancer

Background: This study aims to investigate the correlations of positive rate of phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) protein with lymph node metastasis (LNM) and tumor node metastasis (TNM) staging of nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients by conducted a meta-analysis. Materials and Methods: Covering several electronic databases (Embase, Cochrane Library, China BioMedicine, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, PubMed, and Web of Science), published papers eligible for enrollment in the current meta-analysis had to fulfill our predefined selection criteria. Odds ratios (ORs) with their 95% confidence interval (95%CI) were aggregated utilizing comprehensive meta-analysis 2.0 software (Biostatic Inc., Englewood, New Jersey, USA). Results: Twelve cohort studies with a total of 419 NSCLC patients were incorporated into the current meta-analysis. A decreased positive rate of PTEN protein was detected in NSCLC patients with TNM stage III-IV rather than those patients with TNM stage I-II (OR = 0.454, 95%CI = 0.338–0.610, P < 0.001). PTEN in NSCLC patients without LNM expressed higher than that in the patients with LNM (OR = 0.532, 95%CI: 0.299–0.948, P = 0.032). Ethnicity-stratified analysis demonstrated a negative relationship between positive rate of PTEN protein and TNM staging of NSCLC among both Asians and Caucasians (both P < 0.05). However, we found no significant association between positive rate of PTEN protein and LNM among Asians and Caucasians (both P > 0.05). Conclusion: Our findings indicate that decreased positive rate of PTEN protein may be linked to TNM staging and LNM in NSCLC, and it could be an important diagnostic biomarker of NSCLC.