SOX2 as prognostic factor in head and neck cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Conclusion: SOX2-positive head and neck cancer patients had a worse prognosis, and this was associated with common clinicopathological poor prognostic factors. Objective: To investigate the correlation between SOX2-positive head and neck cancer and clinicopathological features and its impact on survival. Methods: A search in PubMed and Chinese CNKI (up to 1 July 2013) was performed. Only articles in which SOX2 antigen was detected in situ localization by immunohistochemical staining were included. This meta-analysis was done using RevMan 5.2 software. Outcomes included overall survival and various clinicopathological features. Results: A total of 926 gastric cancer patients from 9 studies were included. Meta-analysis showed that patients with SOX2 expression had a significantly worse 5-year overall survival compared with those with low expression (relative risk (RR) = 2.38, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.10-5.15, p = 0.03, random-effect). With respect to clinicopathological features, SOX2 overexpression as assessed by the immunohistochemistry method was closely correlated with tumor T stage, lymph node metastasis, and TNM stage.