MiR-24-3p as a prognostic indicator for multiple cancers: from a meta-analysis view

A growing number of researches suggest that microRNAs (miRNAs) as oncogene or tumor suppressor genes play a fundamental role in various kinds of cancers. Among them, miR-24-3p, as a star molecule, is widely studied. However, the prognostic value of miR-24-3p is unclear and controversial. We conducted this meta-analysis to evaluate the prognostic value of miR-24-3p in a variety of cancers by integrated existing articles from four databases. PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library (last update in March 2020) were searched for approach literature. Hazard ratios (HRs) and odds ratios (ORs) were used to evaluate the association between miR-24-3p expression levels and prognostic value or clinicopathological characteristics, respectively. A total of 15 studies from 14 literature were finally qualified and concluded in the present meta-analysis. A significantly worse overall survival was observed in higher expression of miR-24-3p cancer group for OS (overall survival) of log-rank tests and Cox multivariate regression by fixed effects model. Also, we found a significant correlation between elevated miR-24-3p levels to RFS (recurrence-free survival) and DFS (disease-free survival). In addition, the pooled odds ratios (ORs) showed that evaluated miR-24-3p was also associated with the larger tumor size (≥5 cm) and advanced TNM stage (III and IV). Built on the above findings, elevated expression levels of miR-24-3p may serve as a promising biomarker used to predict the worse prognosis of cancer patients.