The Prognostic Value of Global DNA Hypomethylation in Cancer: A Meta-Analysis

Jinhui Li, Qingyuan Huang, Fangfang Zeng, Wenxue Li, Zhini He, Wen Chen, Wei Zhu and Bo Zhang

PLOS ONE, 2014, vol. 9, issue 9, 1-9

Abstract: Background: Aberrant methylation of the global genome has been investigated as a prognostic indicator in various cancers, but the results are controversial and ambiguous. Methods and Findings: This meta-analysis presents pooled estimates of the evidence to elucidate this issue. We searched the electronic databases: PubMed, Embase, ISI Web of Science and the Cochrane library (up to August 2013) to identify all of the relevant studies. The association between the level of surrogates' indexes of genome-wide hypomethylation (LINE-1, Alu and Sat–α) and the overall survival (OS) of cancer patients was examined. In addition, the pooled hazard ratios (HRs) with their 95% confidence interval (95%CI) were calculated to estimate the influences through fixed-effects and random-effects model. Finally, twenty studies with total population of 5447 met the inclusion criteria. The results indicate that the summary HRs for the studies employing LINE-1, Alu, and Sat-α repetitive elements also show that the global DNA hypomethylation have significant desirable effects on the tumour prognostic value. The pooled HRs (and CIs) of LINE-1, Alu and Sat-α were 1.83 (1.38–2.44), 2.00 (1.16–3.45), and 2.92 (1.04–8.25), with a heterogeneity measure index of I2 (and p-value) shows of 66.6% (p = 0.001), 57.1% (p = 0.053) and 68.2% (p = 0.076) respectively. The meta-regression and subgroup analysis indicated that the percentage of hypomethylated sample of cancer patients is one source of heterogeneity. Conclusion: Our meta-analysis findings support the hypothesis that the global DNA hypomethylation is associated with a detrimental prognosis in tumour patients.

Date: 2014
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0106290

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0106290

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