Prognostic values of HE4 expression in patients with cancer: a meta-analysis

Background: To evaluate the prognostic impact of HE4 expression in patients with cancer.

Materials and methods: We searched the PubMed, Web of Science, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure and WangFang databases for publications concerning HE4 expression in patients with cancer. The correlation of HE4 expression level with overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), and progression-free survival (PFS) was analyzed.

Results: In this meta-analysis, 29 studies, with a total of 4,235 patients, were included. Our results showed that HE4 expression was significantly associated with poorer OS (hazard ratio [HR] =2.15, 95% confidence interval [CI] =1.77-2.62, P<0.001). Further subgroup analysis found that this correlation was not affected by race (White: HR =1.92, 95% CI =1.53-2.39, P<0.001; Asian: HR =2.62, 95% CI =2.06-3.35, P<0.001) or tumor types (endometrial cancer: HR =2.91, 95% CI =1.86-4.53, P<0.001; ovarian cancer: HR =1.82, 95% CI =1.50-2.22, P<0.001; lung cancer: HR =2.31, 95% CI =1.54-3.47, P<0.001). Our meta-analysis showed that HE4 overexpression was significantly associated with DFS (HR =2.50, 95% CI =1.86-3.37, P<0.001) and PFS (HR =1.27, 95% CI =1.11-1.45, P=0.001).

Conclusion: These results suggest that expression of HE4 was associated with a worse prognosis in patients with cancer. HE4 is a potential novel prognostic factor in patients with cancer.