The Prognosis Value of CDH-1 Methylation-The Epigenetic Biomarker in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma:Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: The phenome of CDH-1 gene methylation has been reported to be associated with the nasopharyngeal tumorigenesis. Objective: Aiming to evaluate the association between the CDH-1 gene methylation and nasopharyngeal cancer, and its correlation could be used as an epigenetic biomarker for nasopharyngeal cancer risk based on meta-analysis. Materials and Methods: Relevant articles were identified by searching MEDLINE database. The frequency and Odds Ratio (OR) were applied to estimate the effect of CDH-1 methylation based on random-/fix-effects models. Results: Total of 12 studies, including 500 samples from NPC patients and 201 samples from non-cancerous samples, were enrolled in current study. Overall, the frequency of CDH-1 gene methylation were 48.50% and 3.09% in the case and control group, respectively. The association between the CDH-1 gene methylation and risk of NPC was also confirmed by calculating OR value of 15.33 (95% CI = 7.82-30.06), based on the fix-effects model. Additionally, the significant association was also found between the methylation of CDH-1 gene and subgroups. Conclusion: this meta-analysis provides scientific evidences to suggest the CDH-1 methylation was the potential biomarker for risk of NPC.