Up-regulation of Flot-2 Protein is Related to Lymph Node Metastasis and Poor Prognosis in Human Solid Tumors

Numerous studies showed that the Flot-2 protein expression was significantly elevated in cancerous tissues and Flot-2 played pivotal roles in the development and progression of cancers. Increased expression of Flot-2 was correlated to a poor prognosis in cancer patients.Eligible literatures were collected by retrieving multiple databases, including PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, CNKI and Wanfang database. With RevMan5.3 software and Stata SE12.0, the association of Flot-2 expression level with lymph node metastasis (LNM) and overall survival (OS) were explored in cancer patients.A total of 1947 cancer patients from 13 eligible articles were included in this meta-analysis. The results indicated that patients with over-expressed Flot-2 would develop an increased risk of LNM (OR=2.58, 95% CI: 1.60-4.16, P=0.0001), as well as shorter OS (HR=1.59, 95% CI: 1.13-2.06, P=0.000), compared to those patients with lower expression of Flot-2 in tumor tissues.Flot-2 protein might be a novel biomarker; LNM and OS may be predicted by up-regulated expression of Flot-2 in various tumors.