Prognostic and clinical significance of lncRNA NKILA in tumors: a meta-analysis

Abstract Background lncRNA NKILA is a newly discovered long non-coding RNA, and some studies have shown that lncRNA NKILA has certain clinical prognostic value in malignant tumors. In this study, we used meta-analysis to integrate existing literature to further evaluate the clinic relevance between lncRNA NKILA expression level and cancers. Materials and Methods We conducted a meta-analysis based on literature reporting lncRNA NKILA expression in various cancers published before 25, May 2020 by PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science. The quality ratings of the included studies were assessed according to the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. After rigorous screening, a total of 8 articles and 859 patients were included in our study. Hazard ratios (HRs) and odds ratios (ORs) were used to demonstrate the relationship between NKILA and prognosis by using Stata 15.0 software. Results The results show overexpression level of lncRNA NKILA is significantly associated with better overall survival (pooled HR = 0.45, 95%CI:0.35–0.59, P < 0.001, fixed-effects model). Furthermore, increased expression level of lncRNA NKILA was associated with negative lymph node metastasis (positive vs. negative,OR = 0.27, 95%CI:0.18–0.42, P < 0.001, fixed-effects model) and earlier clinical stage (TNM III/IV vs. I/II: OR = 0.34, 95%CI:0.25–0.46, p < 0.001, fixed-effects model). Conclusions Our study indicated lncRNA NKILA was a novel biomarker for prognosis in cancers. It could serve as a tumor-suppressive role.