Role of c‐Met expression on prognosis of head and neck cancer: A literature review and meta‐analysis

The prognostic role of c‐Met expression in patients with head and neck cancer were controversial among different studies. Thus, we performed a meta‐analysis to evaluate the relationships between c‐Met expression and survival and clinical parameters of head and neck cancer patients. Summary hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated to analyze the correlations between c‐Met expression and overall survival (OS), and disease‐free survival (DFS). Furthermore, odds ratios (ORs) and 95% CIs were used to describe the relationships between c‐Met expression and different clinicopathological parameters. A total of 2417 patients from 19 studies were enrolled in the final analysis. The results showed that patients with higher c‐Met expression had a poor OS (HR, 1.65; 95% CI, 1.20‐2.27) and DFS (HR, 1.48; 95% CI, 0.99‐2.20). In addition, c‐Met expression was associated with the N classification of patients with head and neck cancer. These results suggested that c‐Met expression was a risk factor for head and neck cancer, and increased c‐Met expression would be a predictor of a poorer prognosis for the patients.