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Hypoxia inducible factor: a potential prognostic biomarker in oral squamous cell carcinoma

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Tumor Biology

Abstract

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most common oral cancer. Hypoxia inducible factor (HIF) is involved in many malignant tumors’ growth and metastasis and upregulated by hypoxia, including oral cancer. Many studies have studied about the prognostic value of HIF expression in OSCC; however, they do not get the consistent results. Therefore, this study explored the correlation between the HIF expression and the prognosis of OSCC. It conducted a meta-analysis of relevant publications searched in the Web of Science, PubMed, and ISI Web of Knowledge databases. Totally, this study identified 12 relevant articles reporting a total of 1112 patients. This analysis revealed a significant association between increased risk of mortality (RR = 1.20; 95 % CI 0.74–1.95; I 2 85.4 %) and overexpression of HIFs. Furthermore, different HIF isoforms were associated with overall survival [HIF-1α (RR = 1.18; 95 % CI 0.66–2.11; I 2 87.2 %) and HIF-2α (RR = 1.40; 95 % CI 0.93–2.09; I2 0.0 %)]. These results show that overexpression of HIFs, regardless of whether the HIF-1α or HIF-2α isoforms are overexpressed is significantly associated with increased risk of mortality in OSCC patients. In this study, the funnel is symmetric, suggesting existed no publication bias.

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Acknowledgments

This study was financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (81302351), Jiangsu Provincial Natural Science Foundation (BK 20131080), Distinguished young investigator project of Nanjing (JQX14010).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Nanjing Stomatological Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, No 30 Zhongyang Road, Nanjing, China

    Jiang Qian, Xu Wenguang, Wang Zhiyong, Zou Yuntao & Han Wei

  2. Central Laboratory of Stomatology, Nanjing Stomatological Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, No 30 Zhongyang Road, Nanjing, China

    Jiang Qian, Xu Wenguang, Wang Zhiyong, Zou Yuntao & Han Wei

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  1. Jiang Qian
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Correspondence to Han Wei.

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Qian, J., Wenguang, X., Zhiyong, W. et al. Hypoxia inducible factor: a potential prognostic biomarker in oral squamous cell carcinoma. Tumor Biol. 37, 10815–10820 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-016-4976-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-016-4976-3

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